As my RedState colleague Rusty Weiss reported, Nebraska's purportedly "non-partisan" Senate hopeful Dan Osborn stepped in it deeply with recent hot mic comments disparaging Nebraskans who voted for and supported President Trump. How deep? On Wednesday, Osborn went on CNN's Inside Politics with Dana Bash to do cleanup on Aisle 7. 

WATCH:

"It sure sounds like me"? A brighter politician or political candidate could have blamed it on AI or claimed that Republicans have deceptively edited the audio. Instead, Osborn neither confirms nor denies it was indeed him making those felonious remarks. This non-answer half-apology will only add fuel to the outrage Nebraskans are already feeling.

Osborn then goes on to try and tie himself to how Trump ran as an outsider, and says he's doing the same thing too: to stick it to the man!

Mmmkay.

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Osborn continued in the interview:

What I'm talking about, I'm talking about people are pissed off, people are disenfranchised. And that's what Trump captured in Nebraska. He captured people who are angry about the political system, and Trump ran outside of that, as an outsider. That's what people like about Trump. That's why I'm running again as an Independent, running outside the political system. Because I'm tired of the two-party doom loop, I'm tired of the Chuck Schumers of the world not getting anything done for me and my family. And I'm tired of Pete Ricketts, my opponent, not breaking up the meat packers in my state, and enriching himself while in office. That's what people are mad about, and certainly that's what Trump has tapped into as well.

Osborn blathered on that he wasn't maligning any particular person, but was just expressing that life is hard for all Nebraskans.

"I don't remember who I was talking to or what the context was there, but what I do know is, certainly people are angry about this, and life continues to get harder," he said. 

In my opinion, the full five-minute CNN interview is more damaging than those hot mic comments. 

WATCH: 

As Rusty asserted, this moment is akin to Hillary Clinton's 2016 "basket of deplorables" throwaway line, or in 2024, when Joe Biden called Trump supporters "garbage." This is the hinge on which the Democrat tickets' losing campaigns those years swung even further in the wrong direction, and neither one could stop the downward trajectory. 

Yet, Osborn comes off nonplussed. He's kinda sorry if he actually did say what he said, but he can't say for sure if he said it, and everybody's angry, man, and "Pete Ricketts BAD," is all he's got.

Osborn may pretend these comments won't damage his campaign, but he knows he's in real trouble. In more "Real Talk from Dan Osborn," the RNC unearthed more oppo of Osborn admitting that he has to hide his true feelings and policy points, and not sign on to the progressive nuttiness of his endorsed party if he expects to win over those 10-15 percent of Nebraska Republicans whom he just insulted. 

LISTEN (language warning):

While Osborn may have thought he did damage control on his preferred softball network, he really didn't do himself any favors. "Billy Bob," "Mary Jo," and a lot of other Nebraskans are going to take that anger they are feeling to the ballot box and cast their vote for Pete Ricketts, if for no other reason than out of spite. Anger works both ways, you see. 

If the comments on the RNC Research X post are any barometer, Osborn's got a lot of cleanup ahead of him before November.