Weekend Edition.
Disloyalty to the man.
1. Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict President Donald Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial, failed to make a runoff Saturday after voters in his state heeded Trump’s call to oust him. The loss marked a bitter end to Cassidy’s two terms in the Senate and the most significant defeat for a Republican who sought to hold Trump accountable for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol since Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyoming) lost her primary four years ago. (Source: washingtonpost.com)
2. President Trump endorsed one of Sen. Cassidy’s primary challengers, Rep. Julia Letlow, and celebrated his defeat Saturday night. “His disloyalty to the man who got him elected is now a part of legend, and it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!” Trump wrote on social media. Ms. Letlow did not defeat Cassidy outright because she did not win a majority of the vote. Instead, she advanced to a June 27 primary runoff in which she will face John Fleming, the state treasurer. Letlow led Fleming 45 percent to 28 percent with almost all of the vote counted. Cassidy trailed with 24 percent of the vote. (Source: washingtonpost.com, truthsocial.com)
3. Amy Walter:
I think of this election as a battle between two very powerful forces in politics: One is the political environment (things like inflation, the war in Iran, etc.), and the other is partisanship (the fact that voters are now more cemented into their party identities than ever and less willing to give the other party their vote). The political environment helps Democrats; the structural partisanship helps Republicans.
