Ben Sasse picks his favorite speaking moments as a U.S. Senator

Ben Sasse picks his favorite speaking moments as a U.S. Senator

From Extreme Mortman by C-SPAN

March 5, 2026 · 19 min

About this episode

Ben Sasse shares his favorite speaking moments and reflections as a U.S. Senator.

On November 3rd, 2015, a freshman rose on the Senate floor to address his colleagues… He gave his maiden speech as a U.S. Senator… It was a full year since he was elected. I rise to speak from the floor for the first time. I have never been in politics before, and I intentionally waited to speak here. I want to talk today about the historic purposes and uses of the Senate, about the decades-long decline of the legislature relative to the executive branch, and about what baby steps toward institutional recovery might look like. Before doing so, let me explain briefly why I chose to wait a year since election day before beginning to fully engage in floor debate. That was Nebraska Republican Ben Sasse … Why did Senator Sasse wait a year before giving his first floor speech? In the latest episode of C-SPAN's podcast "Extreme Mortman" – find out! We're featuring Senator Sasse because he recently announced he has stage-four pancreatic cancer. So, we wanted to know: Which were his favorite and most notable speeches as a U.S. Senator. And he told us. Which moments did Ben Sasse pick? What was a common theme when Ben Sasse questioned Supreme Court justice nominees? Whose desk did Ben…

People in this episode

Host: C-SPAN

Guest: Ben Sasse

Topics covered

  • Senate speeches
  • political history
  • institutional recovery
  • Supreme Court nominees
  • personal reflections

Keywords

  • Ben Sasse
  • Senate
  • speeches
  • politics
  • Supreme Court
  • cancer
  • C-SPAN

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Dr. Pepper

More episodes of Extreme Mortman

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Extreme Mortman podcast page.