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Shouting Match Over Iran
President Donald Trump engaged in a shouting match with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) during a closed-door lunch with Senate Republicans on Wednesday over Cassidy’s support for a war powers resolution directing the administration to withdraw U.S. forces from Iran.
“President Donald Trump engaged in a shouting match with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA)”
Cassidy said the dispute began when Trump questioned aloud why any Republican would vote for the resolution, and Cassidy stood up to ask whether Trump’s question was rhetorical or if he wanted an explanation.
Cassidy told reporters, “You have not told the American people what’s going on. It was supposed to last four weeks, it has lasted for four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved. And I want to know what’s going on.”
Cassidy said Trump “raised his voice,” prompting Cassidy to grow angry, and other GOP senators encouraged Cassidy to sit down and tried to “deescalate” the situation.
Thune, Trump, and Cassidy
After the luncheon concluded, Scott told reporters that Trump was “very forceful about what he cares about,” also noting that the president talked about Iran “a lot.”
Cassidy said he would continue to vote for the war powers resolutions until he is briefed on the war effort, and he said, “I make no apologies for standing up to the president, if you will, trying to demand that more information be shared with the Senate.”
ABC News reported that Senate Majority Leader John Thune tried to intervene to de-escalate the situation and other senators tried to ease tensions over the resolution’s aim to limit Trump’s ability to wage war in Iran.
Multiple sources described the clash between Trump and Cassidy as a shouting match, and at one point Trump called Cassidy a “lunatic,” according to ABC News.
War Powers Rebuke and Next
The war powers resolution passed the Senate the previous day with four Republicans voting with Democrats, and ABC News said the resolution passed by a 50-48 vote.
“allowed the resolution to pass by a 50-48 vote”
Jewish Insider reported that Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Rand Paul (R-KY) joined Cassidy in helping Democrats pass a war powers resolution in the Senate for the first time on Tuesday, delivering the upper chamber’s first rebuke of the president’s war.
Cassidy said he would be satisfied once the administration briefs Congress on the details of the U.S. memorandum of understanding with Iran, warning, “You say everything’s fine, but on the outside, it doesn’t look like everything’s fine.”
The meeting was organized by Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) and came as tensions between Trump and the Senate Republican conference rose over the war powers vote and Trump’s broader legislative demands, including his voter ID bill and his last-minute decision on Wednesday to cancel a signing ceremony at the Capitol for a bipartisan housing package.
