WASHINGTON — “Would you really like to know?” Sen. Bill Cassidy asked President Donald Trump.
Just hours after refusing to sign a bipartisan housing bill that Republicans hoped would boost their election-year prospects, the president was attending a private lunch Wednesday with the Senate GOP. Trump wondered aloud how anyone could have voted for a war powers resolution a day earlier that seeks to block further U.S. military action against Iran.
Cassidy, one of the four Republicans who backed the measure, was ready with an answer.
“I stood and said, ‘You have not told the American people what’s going on,’” Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, recounted to reporters afterward. “This is supposed to last four weeks. It’s lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved.”
Things deteriorated from there.
When Cassidy told Trump he would continue voting for war powers resolutions until there’s a congressional briefing on developments in Iran, the senator recalled that Trump “did not particularly care for my comments” and “raised his voice.”
Trump repeatedly told Cassidy to sit down, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private meeting. At one point, the president called the senator a “lunatic,” the person said.
Cassidy acknowledged losing his temper, which he said was “not appropriate.”
“But I again matched his tone and volume,” Cassidy said, before recalling that he eventually sat down. “And so I sat down and tried to de-escalate. I guess my point is, though, that the American people need to know more than we’re being told.”
A remarkable exchange between a GOP senator and Trump
The back-and-forth was a remarkable exchange between a two-term Republican senator and a president from his own party. It’s a departure from the posture many congressional Republicans have adopted during Trump’s second term as they mostly avoid criticizing him in public while expressing frustration in private.
But the comments reflected the growing unease among congressional Republicans about the durability of their thin majorities on Capitol Hill in this year’s elections, particularly in the turmoil of the Iran war. And it reflected the long-festering enmity between Trump and Cassidy that came to a head this year.
Trump effectively ended Cassidy’s political career by backing a Republican rival in Louisiana’s Republican primary. Cassidy last month became the first incumbent senator in 14 years to lose a primary, driven largely by his vote to convict Trump in the impeachment trial for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Cassidy said Trump brought up his election defeat as they argued. He described the president’s comments as part of “whatever comes to mind as to demean another person.”
Before his losing the primary, Cassidy spent much of his time trying to make amends, largely supporting the president’s policies and nominees. He has taken a tougher stance since losing his primary, freed from having to face Republican voters who remain loyal to Trump.
“It does not appear, although I don’t know for sure, that the course of (the Iran war) is going the way that we were told,” Cassidy said. “And so I make no apologies for standing up to the president, if you will, trying to demand that more information be shared with the Senate, and more information be shared with the American people.”
Republicans try to play down the episode
Cassidy’s colleagues didn’t offer robust support, with Trump in the room, though Cassidy said they didn’t have much of a chance.
“The president just kind of talked and talked and talked and talked and talked,” Cassidy said.
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment on Cassidy’s characterization of the meeting and some Republicans tried to play down the clash.
“Y’all act like no one ever yelled at each other,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, told reporters.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican and former college football coach, described the encounter as “halftime talk” in the aftermath of the senator’s defeat.
“Probably needed to be said, end of the day,” he said. “I think they got a lot of – both of them – got a lot off their chests.”
Others noted dryly that the meeting had been advertised as a chance for Trump and the Republicans to get on the same page.
“That was quite a unity message,” said Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas Republican who lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger just weeks after Cassidy.
Asked if he was being sarcastic, Cornyn stepped into an elevator and let the doors close.
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Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.
