U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy broke with the Republican Party on Saturday in visceral terms along with just six other members of his party to convict Donald Trump on charges of inciting insurgency and declaring that he is passing the Constitution on the former president.
The backlash from Republicans at home was rapid and dramatic. The state IDP has taken the remarkable step of censoring the Republic of Baton Rouge hours after its conviction. Several Republican elected officials condemned the senator, who was a staunchly conservative voter during his first six-year term, which began in 2014, and agree with Trump 89% of the time.
The rift between Cassidy and his own party has made it clear that the allegiance among many Louisiana Republicans still lies with the former president, and not with their senior U.S. senator.
“Our Constitution and our country are more important than any person,” Cassidy said in a short video released after the vote. “I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty.”
Cassidy, along with six other Republicans, voted with all Democrats to convict Trump, leaving the Democrats far behind the two-thirds threshold required for conviction. Yet they regard the vote as the most dual accusatory voice in American history. The historic indictment surrounding Trump’s role in inciting a crowd that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 prompted him to suspend the certification of President Joe Biden’s election. Five people died in the riot.
Louisiana’s other senator, John Kennedy of Madisonville, who is eligible for re-election in 2022, voted to acquit Trump and criticizes the indictment as a ‘political sport’. Kennedy also voted earlier this week not to proceed with the trial on the grounds that it is unconstitutional to convict a former president; Cassidy also broke up with most members of his party on that vote.
“The merits of the Democrats’ case were not even close,” Kennedy said. “The Democrats did not give the president a proper trial in the House – no hearings, no investigations, no right to be heard, no defense. No one is exalted above the law, but no one is below it. ”
Both Kennedy and Cassidy were Democrats for years – the Democratic Party dominated Louisiana politics for years – before switching to the GOP, as Republicans strengthened their political power in the state.
Almost immediately after his vote to convict, Louisiana Republicans blew Cassidy. Attorney General Jeff Landry said the vote was “extremely disappointing”, calling the indictment unconstitutional. He said Cassidy had fallen into a “trap set by Democrats to bring Republicans down on Republicans.”
Mike Bayham, the secretary of the LAGOP, said he hoped the legislature would overhaul the state’s electoral system to hold closed primaries, which he said would result in more reliable Republican candidates. Currently, all candidates for their office appear on the same ballot, regardless of the party, known as a jungle.
“Bill Cassidy is a senator without a party today,” he said.
LAGOP chairman Louis Gurvich said the party condemned Cassidy’s vote.
“Fortunately, clearer heads have triumphed and President Trump has been acquitted of the charges against him that have been filed,” Gurvich said.
State Representative Blake Miguez, of Erath, the head of the House’s GOP delegation, said Cassidy “no longer represents the majority of people in Louisiana” who elected him to office. “Do not be warmly welcomed when you come home to Louisiana!” he tweeted.
Trump easily won Louisiana in 2016 and 2020, commanding great influence over Louisiana Republicans. State legislators regularly follow its guidance on policy issues. Trump tried to help Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards in 2019 by pushing businessman Eddie Rispone, but Edwards emerged victorious in a close race.
Cassidy’s vote is the latest indication that he is embarking on a more independent path after winning re-election in November for his second six-year term, a match he easily won in the jungle. He won his first term in 2014 by ousting Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu, mainly by hammering her because she voted with then-President Barack Obama.
A doctor who previously worked in the state’s charity hospital system made a name for himself during Cassidy’s tenure during Trump’s term by helping lead a GOP effort to reform the country’s health care system. The attempt failed, but it raised his profile as a policy winner who became the Trump administration’s senator on health care issues.
Since his re-election, Cassidy has been more willing than any Republican in Congress to break with the party line. He was the first to admit that Trump lost the election, in late November, and was the only member of the delegation to refuse to object to a state’s election votes, as Trump insisted on unfounded allegations of voter fraud.
He also joined a group of more moderate Republicans who want to make a dual agreement with the Biden government. He and nine other Republican senators recently met with Biden to discuss a COVID relief package.
After Cassidy voted earlier in the week to continue the indictment, it is not conservatism to put Trump above the Constitution. This is not Republican. ‘