Senator Cassidy expresses willingness to meet with No Labels

If President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump score nominations for a rematch for the White House, Sen. Bill Cassidy said Sunday he’s open to meeting with No Labels, a political group pushing for a third-party, bipartisan presidential ticket, about a potential campaign. 

That talk hasn’t happened yet, the Louisiana Republican told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” but added that depending on who the candidates are, “if they came and spoke to me, I would certainly speak to them back.”

And, he acknowledged those candidates would be Biden and Trump. 

“Put it this way: 70% of the American people want something different,” said Cassidy. “Plausibly, we could have a setting in which someone has been convicted and someone else shows signs of mental decline so significant, 70% of the American people are already thinking that he’s too old. He is not being transparent like some are in terms of revealing the tests.”

But Americans aren’t being told what’s going on, and that means there “plausibly” should be another option, said Cassidy. 

Meanwhile, there is talk growing in the House about an impeachment inquiry against Biden, Cassidy said Americans should know if the president was involved or knew about his son, Hunter, trading on the family name for personal enrichment. 

But, he added that as he’s not an attorney, he wouldn’t talk about the legal merits of an inquiry, but he does think House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is doing a “good service” to the country with his investigation. 

Cassidy, though, refused to speculate if House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is threatening a government shutdown while pushing for the documents. 

“Do we need to pass the funding bill? Absolutely,” he said. “Hopefully the two can be considered separately. I don’t know what Kevin’s strategy is.”

Cassidy also said he agreed that there should be some kind of ethics rules about family members of politicians making money from their name, but on the other hand, “you can’t deny somebody a right to earn a living.”

“My wife, for example, doesn’t make any money at what she’s doing, but she’s got a career independently of me,” he said. “Do we want to kind of snuff that out? And she’s an incredibly capable person.”

Meanwhile, earlier in the year Cassidy said he does not think Trump will be the eventual GOP presidential nominee, but now he’s not so sure. 

“I think Mike Pence is trying to draw the contrast,” he said. “Is there a populist future to our country, to our party, to the Republican Party, or is there a non-populist? Populism has a role, but I think now the populism has come to the point where if you look at a poll of the American people, most don’t like it.”