Today, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) again denied rumors that the White House threatened to close Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base if he did not play ball on the Democrats’ health care bill. Nelson also claimed that he knows the original source of the rumor, and “eventually it will come out.”
Yesterday, we reported that Nelson and the White House were pushing back against rumors of such a base closure threat, which were primarily being propagated by right-wing talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity.
Today, Nelson did a podcast for “Jack & John Thursday morning” at KLIN in Lincoln, Nebraska, and again shot down these claims.
“Nobody’s threatened me,” said Nelson. “As a matter of fact, any discussion with the White House, or leadership, or any of my colleagues, the question about the base, or even the name of the base, has never come up.”
He continued: “We believe we know the source, we have emails. At least one of the sources.” Nelson also said that “there will be a whole lotta folks on the other side of the aisle embarrassed if and when it comes out.”
“If it’s looked into, I welcome that,” he said.
