"The comments made by Mr. Trump were disgusting and totally unacceptable under any circumstance," Deb Fischer tweeted. | AP Photo Trump's top Senate female supporter calls on him to step aside Deb Fischer says Mike Pence should be the GOP’s new nominee.

In May, Sen. Deb Fischer stood silently as her nephew led a drive to humiliate fellow Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse for his opposition to Donald Trump.

On Saturday, she publicly joined Sasse’s side.


As Republicans abandon Trump en masse over newly revealed lewd comments about women, Fischer joined Sasse in urging the Republican presidential nominee to step aside.

"The comments made by Mr. Trump were disgusting and totally unacceptable under any circumstance," she tweeted Saturday afternoon, adding: "It would be wise for him to step aside and allow Mike Pence to serve as our party's nominee."

Fischer has been one of the most committed Trump supporters on the Hill, consistently deeming his performance as improving and prodded skeptical lawmakers to get on board with the nominee. Just last week, she brushed off questions about Trump's attacks on former Miss Universe Alicia Machado and his raising the issue of President Bill Clinton's affairs, saying neither matter would affect her support of him.

“I don’t care,” she said when asked about Trump floating the possibility of mentioning Bill Clinton's infidelity.

Fischer was not alone among Senate Republican women in publicly backing and defending Trump for much of the campaign. Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia spoke at the Republican National Convention that nominated Trump, and Ernst invited Trump to her annual Roast and Ride. Capito joined Fischer on Saturday in bailing from Trump's campaign.

Now, the explicit recording released Friday of Trump boasting about sexually assaulting women proved to be too much for Fischer.

But five months earlier, as her nephew Sam Fischer circulated language intended to publicly rebuke Sasse at the state's GOP convention, the senior Nebraska senator did nothing to intervene. The measure, which didn't name Sasse, called out any Republicans who advocated for a third party candidate to enter the race — as Sasse did in February. It passed 400 to 8 and was widely viewed as a slap at the junior senator.

At the time, a separate measure offered as an corollary would have put the party on record against "all degrading remarks towards women, minorities and other individuals by Republican elected office holders or party officials, including candidates for President of the United States." That measure was rejected.

Meanwhile Fischer publicly voiced her disagreement with Sasse and said that his tactics would lead to a Hillary Clinton presidency. In an interview in June, she said “a third party, Ross Perot, gave us a Clinton, and I’m not going to have a third party now give us another one.”