Is this a smart move, senator? You represent a reliably Republican state—and you’re not going to support Donald Trump should he become the 2024 nominee? That sounds like idiocy. That sounds like tempting fate concerning a primary challenge. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) has already put all his chips on the table on this one, declaring he’s decidedly not on the MAGA train. That’s fine—his state sure as hell will be, though (via The Hill):
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said he will not vote for former President Trump if he wages a bid for the presidency in 2024.
Cassidy, during an interview with “Axios on HBO” that aired on Sunday, also doubled down on his prediction that Trump will not be the GOP nominee if he decides to run again in the next cycle.
The Republican senator told Axios’s Mike Allen “I don’t know that” when discussing the likelihood that Trump will win the GOP nomination in 2024 if he launches a third campaign for the White House.
[…]
When pressed on whether Trump could lose the nomination in 2024, Cassidy said “if you want to win the presidency, and hopefully that's what voters are thinking about, I think he might.”
“But it's clear you ain't voting for him,” Allen said to Cassidy.
“I’m not,” the Republican senator responded.
Bill, where have you been? Not only do Republicans want Trump to run again, but the lion’s share wants the man to remain a top figure in shaping the party’s future. Trump took over the party. Tired of losing, the base looked for something different. They got it. It clinched an upset win in 2016—and if it weren’t for a pandemic caused by Anthony Fauci’s reckless NIH grants to a Chinese virology lab in Wuhan—Trump would have easily secured a second term. I wouldn’t bet anything against Trump—ever. Cassidy thinks otherwise, but there’s time. Maybe he can change his mind. Then again, the man did vote to impeach the president during the second effort. The irony is that declarations like Cassidy’s are what could lead to Trump running again.