GOP Senator: ‘I don’t think Trump can win a general election’

(The Hill) – Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on Sunday said he does not believe former President Trump can win another general election as he campaigns for the GOP nomination in 2024.

CNN’s “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper highlighted comments from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to launch his own 2024 bid later this week, that only he, Trump and President Biden are “credible” candidates — but that only he and Biden have a chance of getting elected in the upcoming race. 

“I don’t think Trump can win a general election,” Cassidy said. He added that the Florida governor’s remarks are “a nice way for him to diss people like Tim Scott who’s a pretty formidable candidate,” in reference to Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) who made his 2024 bid official last week.

“So you just have to take this as a competitor trying to diss others,” Cassidy said of DeSantis’s comments. But the senator then highlighted that, during 2022 midterms, many of the candidates Trump endorsed for the U.S. Senate lost their races.

“I think the President’s kind of high-profile endorsement of those candidates actually hurt those candidates, at least in the general election,” Cassidy said. “So if past is prologue, that means President Trump is gonna have a hard time in those swing states, which means that he cannot win a general election.”

Trump has been polling well ahead of other Republicans in a hypothetical GOP primary, with DeSantis as a top potential challenger. But Trump still leads by double-digits ahead of DeSantis in national polls. With Scott newly in the running and DeSantis expected to join the race soon, the GOP primary is growing more crowded.