Teump celebrates vanquishing another foe..repub Senator Cassidy who voted to impeach

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/16/us/politics/cassidy-louisiana-race-trump.html

Cassidy Loses His Primary in Louisiana, as Trump Vanquishes Another G.O.P. Foe
Senator Bill Cassidy, a two-term Republican who voted to convict President Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial, took a veiled swipe at Mr. Trump, saying power should not focus on “one individual.”


Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana on Saturday lost his Republican primary and the chance to seek a third term, after President Trump targeted him for defeat in retaliation for voting to convict him in his impeachment trial five years ago.

In a result that underscored the durability of Mr. Trump’s grip on his party, Representative Julia Letlow, the president’s chosen candidate, finished well ahead, drawing about 45 percent of the vote. John Fleming, the state treasurer and a former Trump administration official, edged out Mr. Cassidy to finish second, with about 28 percent of the vote.

Both Ms. Letlow and Mr. Fleming will advance to a runoff on June 27, according to The Associated Press.

Neither secured a majority of votes. But Mr. Cassidy, who voted to remove Mr. Trump in 2021 for inciting insurrection and has clashed with the Make America Healthy Again movement over vaccines, could not even secure enough support in his state to stay in the race, finishing with around 25 percent of the vote.

After the race was called, Mr. Trump celebrated in a social media post, writing that Mr. Cassidy’s “disloyalty to the man who got him elected is now a part of legend, and it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!”

[SSJVegeta]

1. At this point any republican who remotely challenged trump on anything

Would likely be better off as a Democrat

[ITAL]

2. This is...

..Why when people ask why more Republicans in Congress don't go against him, I just point to this. Every time someone does he takes them out.

[LisaL]

6. And if they were in Russia they would be falling out windows.

At least we are not there yet.

[karynnj]

3. I wish Cassidy would have realized he was done as a

Republican as soon as Trump was reelected having voted for his impeachment. How much better would he have felt of he voted his conscience and led the defeat of RFK jr?

He would still have lost, but he would have controlled how he lost. I don't know if he could have won as an independent had he done so.

[LisaL]

5. Yes, he could have saved us from RFKjr.

NT

[tinymontgomery]

4. At this point every Republican senator

At this point every Republican senator leaving or losing their primaries due to trump should shift to the Democratic Party and
shoot down every bill the traitors put up and burn trump. What do they have to lose.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. MaddowBlog-Trump got his revenge against Cassidy, but will Cassidy get his revenge against Trump?

Interesting things happen when members lose primaries and suddenly have the opportunity to do as they please.

There’s been plenty of focus on Trump getting his revenge against Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy.

But I think the next question is whether Cassidy, with 230 days remaining in his term, might also get some revenge against Trump.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-05-18T18:00:23.096Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/bill-cassidy-revenge-trump-primary

Looking ahead, however, the dynamic that’s worth appreciating isn’t just whether Trump got his revenge against Cassidy, but also whether Cassidy might yet 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 said as applause from supporters overtook him in a speech after his loss.

In the same concession speech, the 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.”....

For the past year and a half, Cassidy, desperate to keep his job and avoid becoming the first elected senator to lose a primary in more than a decade, has kept his head down, sticking to a partisan script and avoiding confrontations with the White House.

But the Louisianan’s term doesn’t end for another 230 days.

It’s possible, of course, that Cassidy, who’s been a conservative throughout his two-decade career in elected office, will keep voting as he’s been voting and will just coast through the next six months in relative obscurity. But it’s also possible that the senator — who chairs a powerful committee — will build on the kinds of sentiments he shared in his concession speech and become a real thorn in the side of the president who ended his career.

When we think about the kinds of GOP senators who are occasionally willing to show some hints of independent thinking, we tend to focus on members such as Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, Kentucky’s Rand Paul and Maine’s Susan Collins. Since Trump returned to power, few have seen Cassidy as part of this contingent. Don’t be surprised if that soon changes.