Senate Republicans reject war powers resolution after Trump-Cassidy clash

Republican senators changed their votes on an Iran war powers resolution Wednesday night, hours after a heated meeting that included an altercation with President Donald Trump over their opposition to the conflict.

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Senators Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., had already voted in favor of the resolution giving Congress the option to end the war.

But after a contentious closed-door lunch Wednesday, during which Cassidy said he “lost my cool” and Trump said he also raised his voice, Republicans held a late-night vote in which both senators dropped their support for the resolution.

Cassidy, the outgoing senator from Louisiana, was given a private briefing before the vote at the White House that he said addressed “many of my concerns.”

He then returned to Capitol Hill to vote against the resolution that would have seen Congress order Trump “to withdraw United States armed forces from hostilities in or against Iran, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for the use of military force.”

If it had passed both the Senate and the House, Trump would have been forced to veto it.

In the event, Cassidy voted no and Paul voted present, meaning the resolution failed 47-50-1. The Senate must now leave town for a two-week recess.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., leaves the Senate chamber for a meeting with President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill Wednesday. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

“I want to thank Vice President Vance and Special Envoy Witkoff for this afternoon’s in-depth briefing on Iran,” Cassidy said on X. “I appreciate the prompt invitation to the White House to address many of my concerns.”

Paul said he did so to “give the president more space and leverage to negotiate a lasting peace.”

They both voted in favor of the resolution on March 19.

Their change came after the closed-door lunch where Trump was expected to focus on a major bipartisan housing bill and the SAVE America Act. After the president abruptly canceled his plan to sign the housing bill, several senators told NBC News that he spent more time talking about the election bill and the war in Iran.

The latter point led to contentious exchanges between the president and Cassidy, who was defeated last month by a Trump-backed challenger.

Cassidy told reporters he stood up and “got angry” over the administration’s lack of information on Iran. Trump, he said, also raised his voice.

Cassidy recounted telling Trump that the war “was supposed to last four weeks. It lasted four months. Our original goals weren’t met and I want to know what’s going on.”

He said he was “voting for war powers until I get a briefing,” which he duly received later at the White House, given by Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff.

When asked if Trump had called him “crazy,” Cassidy responded, “Can I imagine the president calling me things that would be said at school, on the playground? Yes, I can imagine that.”

Trump has made little effort to paper over the discord.

They had “a very good meeting,” Trump told reporters as he left. “We like everyone in the room,” he said, adding, “I don’t like a few people, but that’s OK.”

After the war powers resolution failed, Sen. Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, who introduced it, said in a statement that Trump had “attempted to intimidate Republican senators for upholding their oath of office.”

“To appease his anger, Republicans agreed to reject a superfluous motion to pass a separate war powers resolution currently pending before the Senate,” Kaine said. “The vote is of no consequence and does not overturn the position expressed by Congress that the continuation of the war against Iran is illegal unless Congress votes to do so. »

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