{"id":22956,"date":"2026-05-19T08:47:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T08:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/no-yolo-yet-bill-cassidy-insists-he-wont-be-out-for-revenge-against-trump\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T08:47:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T08:47:37","slug":"no-yolo-yet-bill-cassidy-insists-he-wont-be-out-for-revenge-against-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/no-yolo-yet-bill-cassidy-insists-he-wont-be-out-for-revenge-against-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"No YOLO yet: Bill Cassidy insists he won\u2019t be out for revenge against Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Donald Trump got his revenge on Sen. Bill Cassidy. The Louisiana Republican says he isn\u2019t planning to return the favor \u2014 yet.<\/p>\n

Freed from political constraints after decisively losing his battle for renomination Saturday, Cassidy could \u2014 if he chooses \u2014 gum up major parts of Trump\u2019s agenda on Capitol Hill. To start with, he holds what amounts to veto power over key nominees as chair of the Senate committee overseeing health care, labor and education and as a member of the powerful Senate Finance Committee.<\/p>\n

Cassidy, in multiple lengthy chats with reporters Monday around the Capitol, batted down any suggestion he is now liberated to challenge Trump head-on. But he also declined to say how he would handle tricky upcoming votes on the Iran war or an immigration enforcement bill and urged Washington to embrace bipartisanship.<\/p>\n

\u201cAm I going to deliberately push back on things? No, I’m going to do what’s good for my country and my state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asked about the nominees coming through the panel he chairs \u2014 which could include a new Labor secretary and FDA commissioner \u2014 Cassidy noted that there were already nominees who were not able to get through the committee.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to continue to do what is best for my state and best for my country and try and make every decision with that consideration,\u201d he said about whether his approach to the administration will change.<\/p>\n

Those comments came after Cassidy delivered a withering, if veiled, condemnation of Trump in his concession speech, raising the possibility that he could become increasingly outspoken in his disagreements with the president over the next seven months.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsults only bother me if they come from somebody of character and integrity. I find that people of character and integrity don\u2019t spend their time attacking people on the internet,\u201d Cassidy said during the speech Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Cassidy largely avoided addressing Trump directly when speaking with reporters Monday. He declined to say, for instance, if he thought Trump had done something that constituted a high crime or misdemeanor during his second term. He was one of the seven Republicans to vote to convict the president on impeachment charges after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.<\/p>\n

Instead, Cassidy said he wanted to \u201cgive a better vision of how we should do things\u201d and signaled that\u2019s an area where he will speak out on before his term ends in early January.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people want me to say negative things,\u201d he said. \u201cI’m saying positive things, positive things that may reflect upon the current circumstance, but it’s coming from my heart about making my country a better place, and that’s my goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cassidy\u2019s avowed attitude could be a sigh of relief for Senate Republicans, who need near-complete unity to confirm nominees or advance legislation through the Senate unless they can win over Democratic votes.<\/p>\n

Republicans already have several members who are retiring, and while they generally vote with the party, former GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina have shown a willingness to break with the president on key issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t see him going in the way of a Thom Tillis, or something like that, to cause unnecessary problems,\u201d said a former Cassidy aide granted anonymity to candidly assess the senator\u2019s thinking. \u201cI think he’ll continue to do what he’s always done, which is just kind of do what he feels is right. I would be surprised if he goes on the warpath.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s loss was the culmination of a politically tortuous year for Cassidy, who stifled his concerns and advanced several controversial Trump nominees \u2014 most prominently HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/p>\n

He also told colleagues \u2014 and Blue Light News<\/u><\/a> \u2014 last year that the White House had assured him Trump would stay neutral in the primary, something some GOP senators were privately skeptical about given the president\u2019s mercurial nature and lingering anger over the 2021 vote.<\/p>\n

Trump instead endorsed a primary opponent, Rep. Julia Letlow, as payback for Cassidy\u2019s 2021 conviction vote. She won a plurality Saturday and will face former Rep. John Fleming in a June 27 runoff.<\/p>\n

Cassidy said Monday he had no regrets over the conviction vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually voted to uphold the Constitution \u2014 that\u2019s a better way to put it,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cThat may have cost me my seat, but who cares?\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on concerns over Cassidy blocking legislative priorities or nominees.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A former administration official from Trump\u2019s first term said the president\u2019s team understood the risks of not endorsing Cassidy and isn\u2019t worried about the senator going into YOLO mode now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the outcome they wanted \u2014 I think that they had factored all of that in from the beginning,\u201d the person said. \u201cI don’t see any regret coming out of them. Cassidy would have been a thorn in the side all the way through the end. And, to be honest, once he got past an election, I don’t think he would care anymore, because who\u2019s going to be gone first \u2014 Trump or Cassidy?\u201d<\/p>\n

The person added that Cassidy won\u2019t be the only senator on his way out the door looking to block nominees from the president, suggesting the White House could keep acting officials in place until a new Congress is seated next year.<\/p>\n

Several of his colleagues downplayed that Cassidy, who is known within the conference for being a low-key health-policy wonk, would suddenly reinvent himself as a major gadfly for Senate leadership or the White House.<\/p>\n

But there are already signs that Cassidy might be freer with his post-election tongue.<\/p>\n

Asked Monday about the Justice Department\u2019s establishment of a controversial \u201cantiweaponization\u201d fund to pay settlements to people allegedly targeted by Democratic administrations, the senator said he didn’t see a \u201clegal precedent\u201d for it.<\/p>\n

Cassidy\u2019s delegation mate, GOP Sen. John Kennedy said, he is \u201cvery nonemotional in the way he makes his decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s very analytical, and personally, I think Bill will just continue to do what he’s always done, just call it like he sees it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune called Cassidy a \u201cteam player\u201d who wants to \u201csee our team succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got several months here in which he can be a real force for change and a factor in trying to get some things done, and chairs an incredibly significant, powerful committee here, and we look forward to continuing to work with him,\u201d Thune said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a member of the committee Cassidy chairs, largely declined to comment on the race but noted that he\u2019s got bills he wants to get through the panel before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be really nice to him,\u201d Hawley said.<\/p>\n

Kelsey Brugger, Calen Razor and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump got his revenge on Sen. Bill Cassidy. The Louisiana Republican says he isn\u2019t planning to return the favor \u2014 yet. Freed from political constraints after decisively losing his battle for renomination Saturday, Cassidy could \u2014 if he chooses \u2014 gum up major parts of Trump\u2019s agenda on Capitol Hill. To start with, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}