Republican senators switched their votes on an Iran war resolution late Wednesday, hours after a fractious meeting that included a shouting match 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 previously voted to progress a war powers resolution giving Congress the ability to halt the war.
But after a contentious closed-door lunch Wednesday, in which Cassidy said he had “lost my temper” and Trump said he raised his voice as well, Republicans held a late-night vote in which the pair backed away from their support for the resolution.
Cassidy, the outgoing Louisiana senator, was given a private briefing before the vote at the White House that he said addressed “many of my concerns.”
Cassidy then returned to Capitol Hill to vote against the war powers resolution that would have seen Congress direct Trump “to remove the United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Iran, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or a specific authorization for use of military force.”
Had it 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 is now due to leave town for a two-week recess.
“I want to thank Vice President Vance and Special Envoy Witkoff for the thorough briefing this afternoon on Iran,” Cassidy said on X. “I appreciate the quick 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 had both voted to advance the resolution March 19.
Their shift came after the closed-door lunch in which Trump was meant to focus on a major, bipartisan housing bill and the SAVE America Act. After abruptly canceling his plans to sign the housing bill, several senators told NBC News he spent more time talking about the election bill and the Iran war.
The latter led to a contentious back-and-forth between Trump and Cassidy, who was defeated by a Trump-backed challenger last month.
Cassidy told reporters that he stood up and “lost my temper” over a lack of information from the administration on Iran. Trump, he said, raised his voice, as well.
Cassidy recounted telling Trump that the war “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.”
He said he was “voting for War Powers until I get a briefing,” which he duly got later at the White House, given by Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Asked if Trump had called him a “lunatic,” Cassidy responded: “Can I imagine that the president called me things that would be said on the school on the playground? Yeah, I can imagine that.”
Trump made little effort to disguise the discord.
They had “a really great meeting,” Trump told reporters on his way out. “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 (D-VA), who introduced it, said in a statement that Trump had “tried to browbeat Republican senators for upholding their oaths of office.”
“To appease his temper tantrum, Republicans agreed to defeat a superfluous motion to proceed to a separate War Powers Resolution currently pending before the Senate,” Kaine said, “The vote is of no consequence and does not undo the expressed position of Congress that further war against Iran is illegal unless Congress votes for it.”
