Former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who publicly announced his stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis with a notably candid message earlier this week, took to X late on Christmas Eve to offer a joke about his condition.
"umm, we should talk . . ." Sasse, 53, wrote in response to a post earlier this week from the American Enterprise Institute, which hade written on Dec. 5 that it was pleased to welcome the former two-term senator as a nonresident senior fellow.
The light-hearted and slightly mocking message from Sasse is in line with the shocking message he revealed earlier this week, when he acknowledged the difficult diagnosis he faced but also talked about being blessed with "amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers."
"This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I'll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die," Sasse wrote in the post. "Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it's a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too -- we all do."
Sasse also said he was "not going down without a fight."
"One sub-part of God's grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more," he wrote near the end of the post. "Death and dying aren't the same -- the process of dying is still something to be lived. We're zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I've pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape."
"There's not a good time to tell your peeps you're now marching to the beat of a faster drummer -- but the season of advent isn't the worst," the former lawmaker wrote. "As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what's to come."
A number of figures in the political world have offered their thoughts about Sasse since his announcement, with some noting his sense of humor.
"Ben is a friend and former colleague. We campaigned together in Nebraska, and we sat side-by-side on the Judiciary Committee (where he accidentally dumped Dr. Pepper in my lap!) He's brilliant, principled and deeply caring," wrote Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) wrote that he had read every word of Sasse's statement twice.
"I wish we had the chance to serve alongside each other in the Senate and get to know each other, but I'm grateful for your raw, thoughtful, and caring words reminding us of the force of hope and the strength with which we face the toughest moments of our lives. I wish you hope towards the eternal," Kim wrote.
One former staffer of Sasse's on X noted the former senator would battle cancer with a "healthy does of gallows humor and unwavering principle."
In response, Sasse again showed that sense of humor, tweeting the hashtag "#notdeadyet."