Trump got his revenge against Cassidy, but will Cassidy get his revenge against Trump?
After Donald Trump left the White House in early 2021, many outstanding figures in Republican politics assumed that he’d successfully set his political profession on hearth. By any sane measure, this was an comprehensible assumption: The then-forming president had simply plotted to grab illegitimate energy and bore accountability for an insurrectionist assault on his personal nation’s seat of presidency.
The concept that Trump would preserve a management function in American politics wasn’t simply unsuitable; on the time, it appeared totally ridiculous.
With this in thoughts, when the then-former president was impeached for his function in making an attempt to overturn the outcomes of a free and truthful election, a number of GOP officers felt snug voting their conscience as a substitute of toeing the celebration line. Indeed, the impeachment vote was essentially the most bipartisan within the nation’s historical past: 10 House Republicans voted to carry Trump accountable, as did seven Senate Republicans.
Almost all of these 17 GOP legislators are actually gone from capitol hilland one will quickly be part of them: Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana suffered an embarrassing loss on Saturday, ending third in his main race and failing to advance to a June runoff. Six years after profitable re-election by a 40-point margin, the incumbent completed with just under 25% of the intraparty vote.
There’s no nice thriller as to what occurred: The incumbent president got down to destroy Cassidy for his 2021 impeachment vote, and Trump succeeded in his objective. The senator had spent the final yr and half making an attempt to string a partisan needle — as much as and together with confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. because the nation’s well being secretary, in direct contradiction to the senator’s ostensible rules about medication and public well being — but these efforts finally amounted to nothing.
Looking forward, nonetheless, the dynamic that is value appreciating is not simply whether or not Trump got his revenge against Cassidy, but additionally whether or not Cassidy would possibly but get some revenge against Trump.
MS NOW’s report highlighted a notable quote from the senator’s concession speech:
“When you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to. But you don’t pout, you don’t whine, you don’t claim the election was stolen,” Cassidy mentioned as applause from supporters overtook him in a speech after his loss.
In the same concession speechthe Louisiana Republican added, “Let me just set the record straight: Our country is not about one individual. It is about the welfare of all Americans, and it is about our Constitution. And if someone doesn’t understand that and attempts to control others by using the levers of power, they’re about serving themselves. They’re not about serving us. And that person is not qualified to be a leader.”
