Senator Bill Cassidy (R., La.) predicted that former President Trump will not be the Republican party’s presidential nominee in the 2024 elections, in a Sunday interview on CNN.
Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators who voted in favor of impeaching Trump for incitement of insurrection, weeks after a mob of the president’s supporters breached the Capitol and forced lawmakers to evacuate the building. The senator’s comments came hours before Trump was scheduled to deliver his first public speech since leaving office, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida.
Cassidy was asked by CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday whether he thought Trump could be nominated for president in 2024.
“I don’t mean to duck, but the truth is you could ask me [about] a lot of people, if they are fit. Point is, I don’t think he’ll be our nominee,” Cassidy responded. Republicans will need to reach out to Trump-skeptic voters in order to win elections, the senator added.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on CNN’s SOTU: “Over the last four years we lost the House, the Senate and the presidency. That has not happened in a single four years under a president since Herbert Hoover.”
Cassidy later said, “If we idolize one person we will lose.” pic.twitter.com/WkctiZwFse
— The Recount (@therecount) February 28, 2021
“Over the last four years we lost the House, the Senate and the presidency. That has not happened in a single four years under a president since Herbert Hoover,” Cassidy said. “If we plan to win in 2022 and 2024, we have to listen to the voters — not just those who really like President Trump, but also those who perhaps are not sure. If we speak to those who are less sure . . . we win; if we don’t, we lose.”
The comments come amid an intra-Republican battle for influence in the GOP following Trump’s defeat in the November elections. After Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) condemned Trump as “practically and morally responsible” for the riots at the Capitol in early January, Trump responded by labeling McConnell a “dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack.”
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