Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., claimed this weekend that the Republican Party will only lose elections if it remains loyal to former President Donald Trump.
Cassidy, who was one of seven GOP senators to vote to convict Trump during the Senate’s second impeachment trial and was unanimously censured by the Louisiana GOP for it, argued the GOP lost both chambers in Congress and the White House because of Trump.
“Over the last four years, we lost the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the presidency,” he told CNN. “That has not happened in a single four years under a president since Herbert Hoover.”
The next four years will carry additional losses if Republicans continue to “idolize” Trump, he continued.
“If you’re going to win in 2022 and 2024, you have got to speak to voters who didn’t vote for us last time,” Cassidy explained. “Now, our policies are great. Before the COVID crisis hit, we had record employment for every group, Hispanics, African-Americans, women, the disabled, high school dropouts, veterans, you name it. We had economic policies that were working. So, if that’s the case, and we can speak to those policies, to those families, then we will win. But if we idolize one person, we will lose. And that’s kind of clear from the last election.”
Cassidy failed to mention the dozens of House races Republican candidates won in the 2020 election, gaining seats rather than predicted losses, and several of the key battleground Senate seats Republicans managed to hold onto.
He was censured by his own state party last month for enabling Democrats’ “attack on the very foundation of American democracy” by voting to convict Trump.
However, Cassidy defended his vote, despite the scorching backlash he has received.
“I am such at peace with that vote. I say that knowing that I’m getting criticized, but I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution,” he said.
