Sen. Bill Cassidy Says Trump Won’t Be the 2024 GOP Presidential Nominee

Sergie Daez | March 1, 2021
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Those who voted to convict former president Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial aren’t exactly unified.

Take, for instance, the issue of the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, which Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) claimed that Trump would win “in a landslide.”

Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) believes that the opposite is true. According to the Hill, Cassidy said that he didn’t think Trump would be the GOP’s nominee in 2024, saying the party needs to focus on the voters, not Trump himself, in order to win in 2024 at all.

Over the weekend, CNN's Dana Bash asked Cassidy if Trump was “fit to be President.”

“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 replied. 

Related: Mitt Romney: Trump Could Win GOP 2024 Presidential Nomination ‘In a Landslide’

He also downplayed the tremendous popularity for Trump evinced this weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), saying that “CPAC is not the entirety of the Republican Party" - despite the fact that 55 percent of CPAC attendees said they'd like the see the former president as the GOP's 2024 nominee.

The Louisiana Senator then said that the key to a Republican victory in 2022 and 2024 was focusing on voters, not Trump.

"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 perhaps those who are less sure," he said. "If we speak to the voters who are less sure that went from President Trump to President Biden, we win. If we don't, we lose. That is a reality that we have to confront."

Bash asked if the GOP would have to sideline Trump in order to win, and if Trump was responsible for the loss of the GOP majorities in congress. Cassidy reiterated that Republicans have to win over Biden voters, and that the party had excellent policies which could appeal to them.

In contrast, "if we idolize one person, we will lose, and that's kind of clear from the last election," Cassidy stated.

Regardless of Cassidy's opinion, a CPAC straw poll found that Trump “is the most popular potential 2024 presidential nominee among conservatives.”


(Cover Photo: Gage Skidmore)

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