Senator Bill Cassidy, one of the few Republicans who voted to convict Donald Trump during his impeachment trial, is once again in the spotlight as the Louisiana primary heats up.
Cassidy has defended his vote as a matter of constitutional duty, but Trump and his allies have never let it go—branding him a “traitor” and backing challengers to unseat him.
Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) spoke to voters at a campaign stop in Lafayette, Louisiana ahead of the state's May 16 primary election. He delivered brief remarks about his pro-life stance on the issue of abortion before taking questions from attendees. The incumbent senator was facing two challengers in the Republican primary, Rep. Julia Letlow and former Rep. John Fleming. Polling conducted by Emerson College in April showed Fleming leading the field with 28 percent followed by President Trump-endorsed Letlow with 27 percent and then Cassidy with 21 percent. Another 22 percent answered as "don't know."
#BillCassidy #LouisianaPrimary #LouisianaPrimary2026 #Cassidy #TrumpVsCassidy #TrumpCassidy #CassidyTrumpVote #ConvictTrump #TrumpImpeachment #GOP #GOPDebate #GOPLoyalty #TrumpInfluence #TrumpControl #TrumpBacked #LouisianaSenate #SenateRace #USElections #USElections2026 #ElectionAnalysis #VotersImpact #TrumpSupport #PoliticalDebate #RepublicanParty #PrimaryRace
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Cassidy has defended his vote as a matter of constitutional duty, but Trump and his allies have never let it go—branding him a “traitor” and backing challengers to unseat him.
Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) spoke to voters at a campaign stop in Lafayette, Louisiana ahead of the state's May 16 primary election. He delivered brief remarks about his pro-life stance on the issue of abortion before taking questions from attendees. The incumbent senator was facing two challengers in the Republican primary, Rep. Julia Letlow and former Rep. John Fleming. Polling conducted by Emerson College in April showed Fleming leading the field with 28 percent followed by President Trump-endorsed Letlow with 27 percent and then Cassidy with 21 percent. Another 22 percent answered as "don't know."
#BillCassidy #LouisianaPrimary #LouisianaPrimary2026 #Cassidy #TrumpVsCassidy #TrumpCassidy #CassidyTrumpVote #ConvictTrump #TrumpImpeachment #GOP #GOPDebate #GOPLoyalty #TrumpInfluence #TrumpControl #TrumpBacked #LouisianaSenate #SenateRace #USElections #USElections2026 #ElectionAnalysis #VotersImpact #TrumpSupport #PoliticalDebate #RepublicanParty #PrimaryRace
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NewsTranscript
00:02Thank you all for being here. And SBA, thank you for the endorsement. This is the most pro-life
00:09section of the most pro-life state. And you are the most pro-life people. So thank you for being
00:17here. And it is an incredible partnership. Why do I say partnership? A few years ago,
00:24I was in Washington. And pro-life leaders were there. And David Vitter was still the
00:30senator. And they were asking David about something. And David said, you know, if something
00:37gets to Washington, D.C., really, it's failed. Because we need to change the culture. We
00:47need people to be pro-life. We need to win the argument here. Because if you're trying
00:53to stop something in Washington, it's almost too late. There's a lot of wisdom in what
00:59then-Senator Vitter said. We need to change the understanding of the importance of life.
01:06I think we're at a point where we can appeal not just to fellow pro-lifers, but to those
01:12who are pro-choice. And that's been my goal as the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor
01:19and Pensions Committee. Let's just take the abortion pills. Let's just take that. And
01:25let's just see how this has been implemented. First, folks will be told, oh, the abortion
01:32pills are nothing but like taking Tylenol. You take it, there's no complications, there's
01:37no problem. Of course, it will ignore the effect upon the child. But nonetheless, for the
01:42woman taking, no big deal. But then you have to humanize. You take the example of the woman
01:49in, I think she was in Point Capi Parish, a young girl. And she wanted to have a gender
01:56reveal party. And her mother coerced her into taking abortion pills. But the thing about the
02:03pills, you're only supposed to take them when the child is up to week 11 of development.
02:10But because a mother or a boyfriend is ordering it through the mail, and there is not an in-person
02:17requirement, an in-person requirement where on the first visit, the doctor's going to do
02:22an ultrasound and see how big the baby is and to see how many weeks along the pregnancy
02:28is. And, oh, no, wait, wait, wait. Do you really want this? When the doctor sees the patient
02:35in person, she will ask the patient, do you realize what these pills do? Do you? No, no,
02:42no, I don't want to take them. My mother's trying to make me take them. The doctor's not going
02:46to prescribe the pill. Or the doctor will do the ultrasound and say, you're week 20. You
02:52can't take this pill now because if you take it, the baby is too large to pass and you'll
02:57be at risk for bleeding, infection, or severe infection like sepsis. Now, this is something
03:05that everybody should unite on. This is something which whether you are pro-life or pro-choice,
03:11you should say, that's wrong. That is wrong. That is coercing someone who wishes to have a
03:18child and then not having. By the way, people are getting prosecuted over this. It isn't
03:24as if this is the figment of the imagination. There are court cases where the fellow puts
03:30it in his girlfriend's food and she ends up aborting without the knowledge of the mother
03:37I just mentioned who's now being prosecuted for coercion, whose daughter, again, thought
03:42she was having a gender reveal party, but instead ended up in the emergency room with the complication.
03:48So, where does that leave us? That leaves us with a clear mission in front of us. How
03:53do we change culture? It's a little bit easy for me. I'm a doctor. Jamie didn't mention
03:57that, but I have fellow... If your doctor is of a certain age, she or he heard my lectures
04:05on diarrhea and hepatitis. I was famous for a diarrhea lecture. You know, my epitaph, it'll
04:10say he gave a really good diarrhea lecture. But when you go through med school, you are
04:17you understand the development within the womb. And you understand the point at which you
04:23can see features. And at the point in which the child becomes viable. And that gives you
04:29a different understanding. So, I thank you for the award. Our challenge before us is how
04:35do we inform our fellow Americans? This is not like taking two Tylenol in your life is forever
04:42the same. Aside from the child's life, there's also your health. And we have to humanize it.
04:49It's not a statistic. Again, it's not just taking two Tylenol for a headache. It's someone
04:54who may want to keep that child, but is being denied the opportunity with a goal of how do
05:00we reinstate the in-person visit. The in-person visit in which the physician will speak to the
05:06patient. And say, do you really want this? Do you understand the implications? And let's
05:10see how long, how far along you're pregnant. And then avoid the complication. In medicine,
05:18a phrase which many people know is first do no harm. We know in our culture we have to
05:25convince people not to do harm to the child. But perhaps you start by convincing them not
05:31to do harm to the mother. And we're on the side of the mother. We're on the side of the
05:35mother and of the child. I really thank you for this. Am I supposed to take questions,
05:40Jamie, or what are we supposed to do now? I am supposed to take questions. Yeah. I'm a
05:47good husband. I always look to a woman to say, what am I supposed to do next? You know what
05:51I'm saying? And I think there's some press here. If anyone has a question, or any one of
05:55you all, thank you again for being here. I really appreciate it. Any questions from the
06:00press? I'm not seeing that. Yes, sir? Yes, sir.
06:06General Hawkins, NPR. I'm actually born in my field, so it's nice to be
06:09Hawkins. Oh, good for you. So what are you going to eat, brother? First, question for you.
06:12What are you going to eat when you're here? I would say I'm going to stop it at Judy's and
06:22. My question would be, what would you say really
06:24differentiate that distinguishes you from the other candidates in this race?
06:32So Jamie pointed out, people may be pro-life, but it's a question of what you do with that. You
06:37can be passively pro-life or you can be actively pro-life. You can be trying to fight for the
06:41mom, for the child, to make sure that they are healthy. And as a physician, I bring that
06:46to the table every time. I bring that to the table. So trying to communicate in a compassionate way,
06:54not in a way which kind of, you know, let's just tick off the other side because I want to
06:58make a point.
06:59No, in a way which tries to help them understand the issues that are important for the mom and
07:04important for the child. I'll also say beyond that, I also understand that if the young woman is pregnant
07:12and she's alone, you got to be pro-life. You got to wrap everything around that young lady to make
07:18her feel secure because she doesn't know where life is going to take her. But I went to the Acadiana
07:24Pregnancy Center here in Acadiana. They do such a wonderful job of equipping the young mom and the
07:30young parents of what they need in order to have a child and either to adopt the child out and
07:37let them
07:37know the joy that will bring to another family or if they decide to keep that, to keep the child,
07:43to support them not just through the pregnancy but through after the pregnancy of how do you manage
07:51your money? How do you, here's some diapers at a reduced cost that you can get. How do you get
07:57employed?
07:58What can we do for child support? I'll also say other pieces of legislation that I've worked on,
08:04increasing the child tax credit, which allows a young family to get more dollars in their pocket to
08:11help pay for those services that they're going to need right off the bat. And so, so I think I
08:17also bring
08:18to it, not just I'm a pro-life, but what can we do to make it better? What can we
08:23do for that young lady to
08:24make sure that she has what she needs when she feels all alone and she doesn't know what to do,
08:29which I can never
08:30totally relate to, but we all can imagine. If we can do that, we change her life, the child's life,
08:42and if she
08:43decides to adopt the child with another family, the life of that family. That's, that's a really good goal. And
08:52I
08:52bring, I, I believe, nickel. Anyone else? Hey, Karen. To kind of expand on about being pro-life is that
09:09when the child is born and has
09:13disability or developed disabilities a little bit later, there needs to be, there are systems and there are services in
09:24place, but we need to ensure
09:25that there's adequate systems and services in place for that child to receive the therapies they need, to have, for
09:33the
09:33parents to have the support, sometimes the finances, to get that child what they need and what the families need.
09:46It
09:47affects not just the child that has a disability, it affects the parents, it affects the siblings, the
09:53grandparents, everyone. So we, we need to look to ensure that services like home and community-based
10:02waiver services and Medicaid continue adequately to provide the needs for the child and their family
10:11and for their, you know, once the, that child becomes of age, but my daughter is going to be 38
10:21years old in a
10:22couple of weeks and she's incapable of taking care of anything for herself. So although she's almost 38, she's still
10:30a
10:31child, she's still a baby in many ways, so it's, it's important to, to, to think past the birth of,
10:38of any
10:39child that whatever, what happens after that, we gotta, we gotta provide, we gotta help provide to ensure that they
10:46have the services. So, so Karen shared her, her, her daughter's story with me and her daughter's severely
10:52disabled. She, she has severe mental and physical disabilities. You absolutely have to help care for
10:59that child. She cannot, she cannot speak. She's been on what's called the NOW waiver since 1991, which we
11:07were fortunate for her to, that she got, she was one of the first ones to get on this waiver.
11:12But there's
11:13always a struggle. There's always a challenge in that, you know, we hear this might be cut or this might
11:22be cut or
11:23not talk about it at all. And it's fearful for us parents to not know that our elected officials are
11:32aware,
11:34um, have enough information about these services. So that way, when they're going through funding or budget
11:41hearings, that Karen, can I address that? Yes. Yes. Um, first I worked in my, my, um, uh, my,
11:49my medical practice again, doctor, but I worked in Louisiana's charity hospital system for over 20,
11:5425 years, um, for the uninsured and the poorly insured, which meant the poorly insured means typically
12:00to be Medicaid. Uh, and in our population, we had, we had that, those are my patients. Those,
12:06those folks who didn't have, who had, um, good people, but they again, more likely to be disabled,
12:14more likely to have problems. On the other hand, each of us knows somebody who is disabled or knows
12:23somebody whose family has someone who's disabled. There's a woman I go to high school, I went to high
12:28school with and, and her son has severe mental illness. And this is important. He was diagnosed,
12:37I think when he was 22 and I'll tell you why that's important because you qualify for long term disability.
12:44I think if you're 18, but if you're adult, an adult, then you don't have the same consideration,
12:50but he is, he is seriously mentally ill, mentally ill and will never work. And so when she dies,
12:57he does not automatically get her social security. And so she is not sure who will care for her son
13:04after she dies. So where do I go through that? Because each of us knows someone with a personal history
13:13like this. Karen is just bold enough to say it. And what can we say about a Republican response to
13:19it?
13:20First, there's a lot of misinformation regarding the Medicaid bill that was passed. We explicitly,
13:29explicitly make sure that nothing changes for the disabled. That stays in place. People who criticize our efforts,
13:37say, Oh, you're doing bad things for the disabled. No disabled. You are good. There's no changes for you from
13:46that federal legislation.
13:48Number one, but there's other things we can do. For example, the, um, woman I went to high school with,
13:56like every year she has to recertify that her son is seriously mentally ill, which is just like nuts.
14:03Uh, yes, this is craziness because if you meet someone wants a physician, sometimes you don't have to be a
14:11physician can,
14:13can say this person will never be whole. And Karen, if you showed pictures of your daughter,
14:21um, anyone in this room would understand that she is a lovely young lady who will never be whole.
14:26And so the burden upon the parent and just to say a couple more things, there's also legislation that I
14:34have co-sponsored.
14:35There's a man with cerebral palsy. I believe cerebral palsy in New Orleans and under current rules written 20 years
14:42ago.
14:43If he says more than $2,000, he loses his benefits. We are teaching people to be wasteful with money.
14:51$2,000 not adjusted for inflation means that if he goes out and his brain is sharp, he can work.
15:00His body is what is what cannot function, but he in our society can work with his brain and put
15:06some money aside.
15:07Not a lot, but more. Why are we penalizing him for being frugal and wise with his money?
15:14Because then he will lose his disability and I have been a leader on trying to change that and have
15:20a strategy how to do so.
15:22And lastly, just to give credit what credit is due.
15:25Sometimes a family is middle class, but with a child with incredible medical expenses, which a middle class family cannot
15:35afford.
15:35It was under George W. Bush with a congressman from Texas, Pete Sessions, who's a close personal friend who has
15:43a disabled son,
15:44who put in the legislation that allows a middle income family to qualify their child for Medicaid so the middle
15:53income family can stay middle income
15:54and is not bankrupted by these incredible medical costs.
15:58So one, I'll say there's a legacy of Republican compassion on this issue.
16:04There's a continued activity.
16:06And in my own life, I think I bring enough insight from medical practice and from just interacting with fellow
16:14human beings to try and bring more solutions for families like yours, Karen.
16:18So anyway.
16:20If I can say one more thing.
16:21If I can say one more thing.
16:21Yes, ma'am.
16:22Is that we've, those of us, and Allison's taking, I don't physically take care of Allison anymore.
16:31I know I look 25, but I'm not, and health things.
16:35But families should not have to pack up their child in wheelchairs and respirators and so forth and take them
16:47before Congress or take them before the Louisiana legislature.
16:53These things should be a given that they would be helped.
16:57And it was my assumption when my daughter was born, oh, there's help available.
17:02And I soon learned it wasn't very easy and that it's a continual process.
17:08Well, I will say, I will go back to how I started.
17:13Our challenge here is to change culture and to make it more pro-life.
17:17And there always will be need for advocacy.
17:19That's what SBA is about.
17:21That's what you're about.
17:22How do we advocate in a positive way that people understand what being pro-life means?
17:27And understand that you want to, in the case of what we discussed today, pro-life for someone who is
17:34disabled.
17:37Pro-life for the young woman who feels isolated.
17:41Pro-life for the young lady who may be tricked or coerced into taking medicines that she does not want
17:47to take that ends up being contraindicated, which can cause complications.
17:51And, of course, pro-life for the life in the womb.
17:54Our goal is for doing that.
17:56I really thank you all for being here.
17:58I thank you for caring for that broader definition of pro-life.
18:02I thank you for attempting to change culture.
18:04And I thank you for supporting Bill Cassidy for Senate.
18:07Thank you very much.
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