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Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) says he won’t “be bullied into silence” after he got into a shouting match with President Trump during a meeting at the Capitol Wednesday, where the two men clashed heatedly over Cassidy’s vote the day before for a resolution to curtail Trump’s authority as commander-in-chief.
“I’m not going to be bullied when I’m trying to get answers for the American people. This is not about me, it’s not about the president,” Cassidy told ABC News’s Rachel Scott. “It’s about the American people knowing what’s going on.”
“I’m not going to be bullied into silence when I’m sticking up for the American people,” he added.
The Louisiana Republican made his comments after he and Trump got into a heated exchange in the Mansfield Room just off the Senate floor on Wednesday, where Trump berated him, as well as Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), over their votes for a House-approved war powers resolution directing Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from hostilities against Iran.
Cassidy, who recently lost his reelection bid to a Trump-backed candidate, bluntly told the president at the meeting that he had not provided enough information to the Senate and the American people about the conflict, which the president initially said would last only four to five weeks.
The senator was invited to the White House after the meeting to receive a briefing on Iran from Vice President JD Vance and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who are leading negotiations to reach a long-term deal to end Tehran’s nuclear enrichment program.
Cassidy later Wednesday then voted against a motion to proceed to another war powers resolution sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) that he had voted last month to discharge out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The Louisiana senator explained to reporters that he voted against Kaine’s measure because he received the information he wanted from Vance and Witkoff.
Paul, who was also the target of Trump’s ire at Wednesday’s meeting, also changed his vote on the resolution, voting “present” instead of “yes.”
The Kentucky Republican had previously voted 10 times in favor of Democratic-sponsored war powers resolutions on Iran but explained on social media that he wants to give the Trump administration “more space and leverage” to reach a peace deal.
“My opinion on the debate over war and executive power has not changed and I have voted that way several times,” he wrote on social platform X. “But since hostilities seem to be over and the President asked me to give consideration to his negotiating position, I will do so.”
“My vote of present is a way to give the President more space and leverage to negotiate a lasting peace,” Paul added.
Kaine’s war powers resolution failed to advance by a vote of 47 to 50 on Wednesday evening.
Add as preferred source on Google Tags Bill Cassidy Donald Trump Iran war JD Vance Lisa Murkowski Rachel Scott Rand Paul Senate GOP Steve Witkoff Tim Kaine Trump administration Trump-Cassidy feud U.S.-Iran peace negotiations War Powers ResolutionCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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