Republican senator believes Trump cannot win a general election for president

Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy said Sunday that he does not believe Donald Trump can win a general election in 2024. He is the latest Republican to back down from supporting the former president in his effort to win back the White House.

“I don’t think Trump can win a general election,” Cassidy told CNN’s “State of the Union,” after being asked about Purported statement by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (right) that there are only three “credible” candidates for president—Trump, President Joe Biden, and himself—and that only the latter two could win in the general election.

The Louisiana senator said DeSantis’ alleged claim is “a good way to denigrate people like Tim Scott, who is a pretty formidable candidate.” Scott, a Republican senator from South Carolina, filed papers Friday to officially run for president.

DeSantis is expected to officially announce his presidential run this week, though the Republican governor has already been considered Trump’s biggest rival in a growing field of Republican presidential candidates. DeSantis has drawn national attention for turning Florida into a hostile state for marginalized groups, including black and brown residents, refugees, abortion seekers, and members of the LGBTQ community.

While Trump, who incited an insurrection on Capitol Hill in 2021 to try to stay in power, is still considered the darling of the Republican Party, Cassidy said recent elections have shown that Trump’s name is no longer associated with victory. . The Louisiana Republican cited swing states such as Georgia, Pennsylvania and Arizona, where every Senate candidate who was endorsed by Trump lost their race in the 2022 midterm elections.

“If you had taken the votes that went to other Republicans and put them together, those Republicans would have won,” the senator said. “So I think the president’s high-profile endorsement of those candidates actually hurt them, at least in the general election.”

“So if the past (is) a prologue, that means President Trump will have a hard time in those swing states, which means he can’t win a general election.”