GOP senator says Trump should drop out of the 2024 presidential race

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said Sunday that he thinks Donald Trump should drop out of the 2024 presidential election as the former president faces criminal charges from four indictments.

“I think so,” Cassidy said when he was asked in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” whether he thinks Trump should drop out. 

“But, obviously, that’s up to him. I mean, you’re just asking me my opinion,” he added. “But he will lose to Joe Biden if you look at the current polls. I’m a Republican. I think any Republican on that stage in Milwaukee will do a better job than Joe Biden.”

Asked whether he would vote for Biden if Trump ultimately wins the Republican nomination, Cassidy said: “I’m going to vote for a Republican.

“But my threshold issue for any person who wants to be the leader of our country is will you take care of the issues before us?” he said. “Both Biden and Trump both have the same policy in Social Security, for example, which is to do nothing.”

Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Cassidy’s remarks.

Cassidy said that out of the numerous criminal charges Trump faces, he thinks the case alleging mishandling of classified documents is “almost a slam dunk.” 

“They have a tape recording of him speaking of it. If that is proven, then we may have a candidate for president who has been convicted of a crime,” he said, in reference to a recording obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s office of Trump discussing a classified planning document that he had taken from his time at the White House.

“I think Joe Biden needs to be replaced, but I don’t think Americans will vote for someone who’s been convicted,” he said. “So I’m just very sorry about how all this is playing out.”

In separate cases, Smith brought charges against Trump in June over his handling of classified documents after leaving office, as well as this month over his efforts to hold on to power after the last presidential election.

Trump and 18 co-defendants were also indicted this month on felony charges in connection with alleged efforts to overturn the results of 2020 election in Georgia. And Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg also charged Trump this year with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to his alleged role in hush money payments made toward the end of his 2016 campaign.

Trump, the front-runner in the polls for the 2024 GOP presidential, has denied any wrongdoing in all four cases.

Cassidy, an outspoken Trump critic, was one of seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial on a charge of incitement of insurrection after the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.