WASHINGTON (AP) — Returning to the U.S. Capitol after a stinging primary reelection loss, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said Monday evening that he has no regrets about his “momentous” vote to convict President Donald Trump on impeachment charges five years ago.
“I voted to uphold the Constitution. It may have cost me my seat, but who cares?” Cassidy told reporters in the Capitol. “I had the privilege of voting to uphold the Constitution,
isn’t that a great thing?”
Cassidy lost his seat in his state’s Republican primary Saturday after Trump endorsed one of his opponents, and after years of trying to convince his voters that he was still supportive of the president even though he had voted to convict Trump in a Senate impeachment trial after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
But after years of curtly dodging questions about his impeachment vote — and often saying nothing at all when pressed in the Capitol hallways — Cassidy now says he feels “great.”
“You’re looking at a man who loves his country, who feels very, very good about how I serve my country and my Constitution and my fellow Americans,” Cassidy said. "Wouldn’t all of us want to say, I voted to support the Constitution on something momentous? That’s the way I feel about it. I’m very pleased about it.”
He now joins a club of Republican lawmakers who have crossed Trump and lost. It remains unclear whether he will join GOP colleagues like North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who has become more outspoken since he announced his retirement last year. Cassidy wouldn’t directly criticize Trump on Monday evening, saying that “people want me to say negative things, but I’m saying positive things.”
Still, he did hint that he may have more to say, telling reporters he is undecided on how he will vote on the next Democratic measure to halt the Iran war and criticizing a new nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate Trump allies who believe they have been unjustly investigated and persecuted — potentially including people who were prosecuted and later pardoned for their roles in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
As Cassidy reflected on his two terms in the Senate, his GOP colleagues still loyal to Trump were mostly quiet or dispassionate about his loss.
“Bill’s loss was predictable, and Bill knew it,” said his Louisiana colleague, Republican Sen. John Kennedy.
Kennedy said Cassidy decided to run anyway, “and I respect that, and I thank him for his service. We’re running on to a runoff now and we’ve got two fine people in the runoff.”
Cassidy's vote to convict Trump five years ago “was an issue, there’s no question,” Kennedy said.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s closest allies, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that “those who try to destroy Trump politically, stand in the way of his agenda, are going to lose.”
Trump agreed, posting over the weekend on social media that “it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!”
Only Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of six other Republicans who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, said she regrets that Cassidy won’t be returning to the Senate.
His defeat “certainly has implications for us here,” she said. “I’ve appreciated working with him and his leadership.”
Until Saturday, Cassidy was also silent on most controversies involving Trump. And he worked hard to show that he was supportive of the president, most significantly by eventually supporting the nomination of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. even after questioning Kennedy’s skepticism of vaccines. As a doctor and the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Cassidy’s vote was crucial.
Cassidy wouldn’t say Monday if he regretted that vote. He compared the vote to a bad date in high school and said “life is lived forward.”
He was more outspoken about Trump’s new “anti-weaponization fund,” which is part of a settlement that resolves the president's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.
While other Republicans dodged questions on the fund as they returned to Washington on Monday evening, telling reporters they didn’t know enough about it or just declining to weigh in, Cassidy said he doesn’t see any precedent for it.
“We are a nation of laws,” Cassidy said. “You can’t just make up things.”
Congress should have a say, he said, adding that people he met on the campaign trail “are concerned about making their own ends meet, not about putting the slush fund together without a legal precedent.”
Cassidy’s support for Trump's conviction in the February 2021 impeachment trial was a surprise, after the mild-mannered doctor had been mostly supportive of — or at least reluctant to challenge — Trump through his first term. He wrestled with how to vote for days beforehand and declined to comment on the trial before casting his vote.
He was one of seven Republicans to vote to convict as the Senate eventually acquitted Trump. The only other two remaining in the Senate are Murkowski and Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who is up for reelection as well in her much more moderate state.
Cassidy said after the vote in 2021 that he was “at peace” with his decision. But it dogged him for the full five years, and became much more of an issue when Trump was reelected and Cassidy was running again.
When asked Monday if he would run for office again, Cassidy made a subtle dig at Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss and his false claims that led to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters.
“I respect democracy,” Cassidy said. “So right now that door just seems to be shut.”
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Associated Press writers Steven Sloan, Joey Cappelletti and Stephen Groves contributed to this report.
