Senator Bill Cassidy clashed with Donald Trump over the Iran war. The Republican raised the alarm after Trump failed to brief Congress on the ongoing war with Tehran.
Bill Cassidy slams Donald Trump over Iran war
Cassidy, a Republican senator from Louisiana, made his frustration public on CBS News’s Face the Nation on Sunday, revealing a heated face-to-face confrontation with the president at a Capitol Hill lunch.
The confrontation came after Donald Trump “berated” Cassidy and three other Republican senators who had voted for a war powers resolution. It’s a symbolic pushback against the White House’s handling of the Iran war. “I raised my volume to match his,” he told the programme.
He argued that the US Constitution requires Congress to be kept informed on matters of war, a principle the founding fathers built into the Constitution to ensure no presidency becomes too powerful. Trump, in Cassidy’s view, had ignored that arrangement entirely.
“He acts as if Congress is merely an appendage, and frankly, sometimes Congress acts like it’s an appendage,” Cassidy said. Despite the tension, Cassidy said he had “accomplished the mission.” Following the confrontation, Trump agreed to arrange a briefing on the Iran war for Cassidy through Vice-President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff. After receiving it, Cassidy dropped his support for the war powers resolution.
Still, the senator remained critical of how the war itself had unfolded. He said the conflict had cost $29 billion and claimed 13 American lives, warning that a “medium-sized power” Iran was now being seen as having “fought a superpower to a draw.”
Cassidy also spoke about Trump’s domestic agenda. He questioned why the president was pushing voting restrictions through the Save America Act. “If I were president, I’d be focused on what a family around the kitchen table is looking at as they go through their bills,” he said.
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.com.
