SouthernWorldwide.com – President Donald Trump’s meeting with Senate Republicans, intended to strategize on passing voter ID and citizenship verification legislation, instead erupted into a heated shouting match concerning the war in Iran.
Tensions among Senate Republicans were already elevated due to President Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw support for the 21st Century Road to Housing Act. This bipartisan housing package, which included several of his own priorities, was seen by the GOP as a guaranteed win to present to voters in the approaching midterm elections.
Following the closed-door session, President Trump characterized the meeting positively.
“I think we had a really great meeting, and we’re very proud of the party,” he stated. “We like our leader. We like everybody, really, in the room. I don’t like a few people, but that’s okay. I think you know who they are.”
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What began as an effort to advance the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act quickly shifted to President Trump criticizing Republicans for permitting a war powers resolution that curtails his authority in Iran to pass on Tuesday.
This criticism triggered a confrontation with Senator Bill Cassidy, R-La., whom Trump had previously campaigned against and defeated earlier in the year.
“He asked, ‘why would anybody vote for the War Powers Act?’,” Cassidy recounted afterward. “As he continued, I said, ‘is that a rhetorical question, or would you like to really know?’ He said, ‘I’d like to know.’”
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“I stood and said, ‘you have not told the American people what’s going on. It was supposed to last four weeks, it’s lasted four months,’” Cassidy continued. “‘Our original objectives have not been achieved, and I want to know what’s going on.’”
The exchange then escalated into a shouting match, which Cassidy humorously attributed to “the Irish in me,” before his colleagues eventually asked him to sit down.
“I guess my point is, though, that the American people need to know more than we are being told,” Cassidy remarked. “The Senate needs to know, and it does not appear, although I don’t know for sure, that the course of this is going the way that we were told.”
Lawmakers have yet to receive a comprehensive briefing on the memorandum of understanding signed last week by President Trump and Iranian leaders. Concerns have been raised regarding its contents and whether it will effectively achieve the administration’s initial objectives set at the war’s commencement months ago.
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A source privy to the meeting indicated that President Trump was “very animated” about the war powers vote, as it weakened the administration’s negotiating stance with Iran. The source also stated that Trump “named names” of the Republicans who sided with Democrats on the vote, including Senator Dave McCormick, R-Pa., who was absent from the vote as he was accompanying the president at an event in Pennsylvania.
The source described the intensity of the shouting match as a “7 out of 10.”
“You know, [like] two boys on recess that are yelling at each other over a foul on a basketball court,” they elaborated.
This meeting occurred mere hours after President Trump had disrupted a ceremony to sign the 21st Century Road to Housing Act into law, in his pursuit of pressuring Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act.
Lawmakers exiting the meeting reported that the housing package was not discussed, nor was a resolution found for advancing the SAVE America Act. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has informed President Trump on multiple occasions that Republicans lack the necessary votes to pass the bill.
Following the meeting, Thune stated that President Trump’s discussion regarding the SAVE America Act focused on “the priority he places on it, and how the pathway he thinks there is to get an outcome or result.”
“So, it really wasn’t on that particular issue, much of a back and forth,” Thune commented.
Lawmakers did not challenge President Trump’s desire to pass the legislation, despite the political reality that Democrats are obstructing the bill and there is no unified Republican front to eliminate the filibuster and force its passage.
“It was more the president saying, ‘If we don’t do this, we’re gonna get ourselves in real trouble going down the road,’” Senator Jim Justice, R-W.Va., observed. “And basically, that was more of the tone than it was, you know, ‘what do y’all think about this? Is this gonna pass? It’s not gonna pass.’”
