A purportedly independent Senate candidate who is being supported by hundreds of thousands of dollars from Democratic Party donors “needs a civics lesson” and some foreign policy primers, according to his Republican opponent.

Sen. Deb Fischer (R., Neb.) is facing a challenge from Dan Osborn, who is running as an independent despite the financial support he receives from some of the nation’s leading progressive groups. In advance of the anniversary of the October 7 terrorist attacks, Fischer blasted Osborn’s record on foreign policy. “I don’t know where he stands on the war in the Middle East,” she said. 

“I haven’t seen any comments being made by him, first of all, on October 7, which we’re coming up on that anniversary now, I haven’t heard any comments being made at the time when Hamas terrorists went in and not just murdered Israelis, they murdered Americans,” Fischer said. “We still have Americans that are being held hostage. I haven’t heard anything from him with Hezbollah moving into the northern part of Israel, where over 80,000 Israelis have had to move south, and the disruption there. I haven’t heard anything from him on President Biden’s recent comments about sending more American troops into that region, no comment made there.”

Osborn is unprepared to be a senator, Fischer said. “I’m receiving briefings on the situation in the Middle East every single day, Nebraskans are extremely interested in what’s going on there, in what’s going on in China, the aggression we see from China, not just with their economic movement and dominance in many areas, but also they are a peer nuclear adversary, as are the Russians,” she said. I haven’t heard anything from him on that.” Osborn’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment about his foreign policy positions. 

Osborn’s campaign has been marred by a series of reports that his Twitter account liked a series of graphic gay and straight porn tweets, and that his email appeared in the Ashley Madison hack database. His campaign attempted to explain both away by saying that both accounts were shared by multiple people. 

Mike Berg, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), told the Washington Reporter that Osborn’s explanation for liking the porn and having the Ashley Madison account “deny reality.” 

“There is too much evidence that married man Dan Osborn liked the gay porn and made an account to cheat on his wife for him to deny it. His explanations deny reality, and he should come clean with Nebraskans.”