GOP Rep. Cassidy Calls on Trump to Quit Race

Former President Donald Trump should drop out of the 2024 presidential race, as "he will lose to Joe Biden if you look at the current polls," Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said Sunday, while describing just one of the indictments against Trump for the alleged mishandling of classified documents, as "almost a slam dunk."

“I think Joe Biden needs to be replaced, but I don’t think Americans would vote for someone who’s been convicted, so I’m just very sorry about how all of this is playing out,” the Louisiana senator told CNN's "State of the Union."

Cassidy added that he'd vote for a Republican nominee for president over Biden or any other Democrat.

"I think any Republican on that stage in Milwaukee will do a better job than Joe Biden, so I want one of them to win," Cassidy said. "If former President Trump ends up getting the nomination, but cannot win a general, that means we will have four more years of policies which have led to very high inflation, to a loss of purchasing power for the average American equivalent to $10,000 and to many other things which I think have been deleterious to our country's future."

Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators voting to convict Trump in 2021 during his second impeachment trial and his comments come after Trump's federal indictments on charges related to the aftermath of the 2020 election and the documents accusations.

The former president, along with several co-defendants, has also been indicted in Georgia over accusations of allegedly trying to turn over the election results favoring Biden in that state, and in New York over accusations of falsifying business records related to his role in a hush-money payment scheme.

Trump maintains all the charges are politically motivated, particularly with his front-runner status in the polls leading up to the primary elections, but Cassidy said Sunday the charges that were related to the documents were the ones most likely to lead to a conviction.

"I can't comment on the rest of them because apparently, you have to prove state of mind," said Cassidy. "[The] one that has the mishandling of the federal documents which seems, again a very strong case and there is a tape recording of him speaking of it. If that is proven then we might have a candidate for president who has been convicted of a crime."

Trump has said he does not plan to attend the first GOP debate of the presidential primary season, set for Milwaukee this Wednesday, but Cassidy said he thinks the debate matters.

"One of them quite likely will be the presidential nominee and I think any of them would be better than Joe Biden," said Cassidy. "If you're concerned about the future of our country, watch the debate and find your candidate and support that candidate."

Cassidy insisted he will vote for a Republican, while not specifying Trump, but also criticized the former president on his stance on fixing the Social Security system.

"Social Security is going insolvent in eight to nine years, which means that somebody watching this who is getting Social Security is going to get a 24% cut," said Cassidy. "Both former President Trump and President Biden are saying you get a 24% cut because I’m not going to do anything. Now my threshold issue if you want to be a leader of our country is to lead, and right now we need someone who will lead on that issue."

He added that he's put forward a plan to create a fund separate from Social Security to invest in the economy and grow money over time.

"You do that and you can take care of 70% of the shortfall and you can make sure that there are no cuts for people currently receiving Social Security," said Cassidy. "We also put in work incentives … we put in poverty alleviation provisions."

Biden could have endorsed the plan, he added, but "he's decided to be political and make this an issue. It should be an issue, but it should be an issue of fixing it. So far, he's not come up with a credible plan."