Dan Osborn, a candidate for U.S. Senate from Nebraska who’s running as an independent, was captured in leaked audio trashing President Donald Trump’s border wall as a “symbol of racism,” despite having lavished praise on the wall during his campaign, Politico reported on Tuesday.
Obtained by Politico, the leaked audio was recorded during a private and "occasionally tense” meeting in July between Osborn and Hispanic and Black Democrats amid his campaign to shore up support with Nebraska voters. During the meeting, Osborn was asked by an attendee about his past praise for Trump’s border wall.
“I knew the wall — it’s a joke,” Osborn said. “It’s a symbol of racism, really, is what the wall represents. It does nothing, you know.”
According to Politico, that same attendee then suggested that Osborn was amending his rhetoric “just to win votes,” to which Osborn made a blunt admission.
“There’s the campaigning side to get elected, and then there’s once you get into office, what are you going to do?” Osborn said.
“I think I’ve tried to say it every which way to Sunday who I am in this room today, and I’ve also told you I’m going to win this race, right? And like I said, those are two separate pots in politics. Campaigning is not being a U.S. senator, so it is about trying to win votes in a Republican state.”
Politico called Osborn’s remarks during the private meeting on Trump’s border wall a “180-degree turn from his 2024 campaign ads,” and noted that the Senate hopeful “declined an interview” request issued ahead of the publication of its report. Osborn did issue Politico a statement, however.
“When I give President Trump full credit for securing the border, some people don’t like that,” Osborn told Politico. “But because I’m an independent, I don’t have to blindly support the purity tests of either party. I’ll fight for a border wall where it makes sense, and other strategies where it doesn’t, like in Big Bend National Park.”