Sen. Bill Cassidy (left) and Donald Trump.Photo: Greg Nash-Pool/Getty; Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty
Donald Trumphasn’t ruled out running again in 2024 and he remains popular with Republican voters — but Sen. Bill Cassidy, at least, doesn’t think he’ll clinch the nomination.
In a new example of the ongoing divisions in the GOP over Trump’s future, the Louisiana Republican predicted on CNN’sState of the Unionon Sunday that Trump won’t be his party’s nominee during the next presidential election cycle.
“He’ll be 78 years old [in 2024]. I don’t think he’ll be our nominee,” Cassidy said. (Joe Biden, is currently theoldest U.S. presidentat 78 years old; Trump was the second oldest.)
Cassidy told CNN’s Dana Bash that “we’ve got to win in two years. We’ve got to win in four years.”
“If we idolize one person, we will lose,” he said. “And that’s kind of clear from the last election.”
In his firstpublic appearancesince leaving office on Jan. 20, Trump held off on definitively declaring his candidacy in 2024, though he said it was a possibility.
“Who knows? I may even decide to beat them for a third time,” Trump, 74, said in his Sunday remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida.
Despite Trump’s pull — and, as CNN noted, hiscontinued influencewas on full display at CPAC — Cassidy argued that “CPAC is not the entirety of the Republican Party.”
Cassidy, who was among the seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump during hissecond impeachment trial, laid much of the blame for the GOP’s political losses squarely at Trump’s feet.
“Political organizations and campaigns are about winning. Over the last four years, we’ve lost the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the presidency,” he said on CNN. “That has not happened in a single four years under a president since Herbert Hoover.”
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have denounced Trump for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, in which five people died.
But many Republicans have waffled on Trump’s continued relevance to the party and to conservative voters. At the same time, Trump has indicated he plans to play a key role in the GOP’s near future, including the 2022 midterms where he hopes to see his critics booted from office.
Senate Minority LeaderMitch McConnellvoted to acquit Trump in his last Senate trial and then gave a speech excoriating his behavior around the Capitol riot.
Last week, however, McConnellsaid thathe would “absolutely” support Trump should he be named the Republican nominee in 2024. (McConnell, 79, said he felt the race was still wide open though.)
Romney, 73, added: “I expect he will continue playing a role. I don’t know if he’ll run in 2024 or not, but if he does I’m pretty sure he will win the nomination.”
The vocal Trump critic (who once met with the former president about potentially taking the role of secretary of state) added that he would not lend his support to a future Trump campaign.
He said he would “not be voting for President Trump again — I haven’t voted for him in the past — and I would probably be getting behind somebody who I thought more represented the tiny wing of the Republican Party that I represent.”
Rep. Liz Cheney, who chairs the House Republican Conference and who voted in favor of Trump’simpeachment, recently told reporters, “I don’t believe that he should be playing a role in the future of the party or the country.”
But the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, has continued to show support for Trump.
Indeed, at a recent press conference Cheney and McCarthy gave opposite answers about whether Trump should have spoken at CPAC.
source: people.com
