A closed-door Senate GOP lunch meeting meant to soothe tensions ended up doing just the opposite. It turned into a shouting match between President Donald Trump and Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy. The private confrontation was over Iran’s war powers.
Donald Trump and Bill Cassidy clash over Iran war powers
The clash began when DonaldTrump demanded to know why members of his own party had voted with Democrats a day earlier to limit his military authority in Iran. Bill Cassidy rose to answer, telling the president that the administration had failed to level with the American public about the war.
“I stood and said, ‘You have not told the American people what’s going on,’” Cassidy told reporters after the GOP meeting. “It was supposed to last four weeks, it’s lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved, and I want to know what’s going on.”
President Trump, already furious about Tuesday’s successful war powers vote, reportedly unloaded on Cassidy with a raised voice. The Louisiana senator admitted he “lost his temper” and shouted back at the same “tone and volume.” At one point, Trump ordered Cassidy to sit down, but the latter refused. The president then called him a “lunatic,” according to sources inside the room.
Furthermore, Cassidy referred to Trump as his “brother.” Trump shot back that he was not his “brother.” The senator eventually took his seat. Senator John Kennedy described Trump as “mad as a murder hornet” about the Iran vote. Additionally, Senator Roger Marshall likened the scene to “a hospital board meeting, when a bunch of doctors are yelling at each other.” Senator Ted Cruz deployed classic congressional language, calling the exchange “spirited,” “frank,” and “candid.”
Senator Cassidy, who lost his renomination bid after Trump endorsed against him, was unapologetic. “The president said something negative about me. I received it as attempting to bully me from asking a question that I think the American people need to know, and I’m not going to be bullied,” he said.
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.
