Cassidy says he passed a note to Witkoff during heated Trump meeting

Washington — GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana connected Wednesday dropped his enactment for a Democrat-led effort to restrict President Trump's warfare powers successful Iran aft receiving a briefing astatine the White House — a briefing helium said helium secured with a enactment slipped to the president's envoy to the Middle East pursuing a heated speech with Mr. Trump down closed doors.  

"In 1 sense, I really accomplished the ngo of what I needed to do," Cassidy said successful an interrogation Thursday for "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." 

Cassidy and the president sparred astatine a testy Senate Republican lunch gathering connected Wednesday, wherever Mr. Trump expressed his discontent with 4 GOP senators, including Cassidy, who had supported a resolution aimed astatine reining successful the president successful Iran a time prior. The Louisiana Republican described losing his temper astatine the meeting, aft the president raised his voice.  

In an interrogation with Margaret Brennan that volition aerial connected Sunday, Cassidy said that aft his speech with the president, helium passed a enactment to Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, saying helium would see changing his vote.

"Steve, I would see changing my vote, but I've been voting yes due to the fact that I've not been briefed," Cassidy recalled penning to Witkoff. "He said, 'Call maine backmost successful the hr and let's person a briefing.' We had it past night."

After the briefing, Cassidy opposed the latest effort by Democrats to beforehand a warfare powers solution Wednesday nighttime successful a cardinal ballot that helped Republicans to decision the effort. 

Cassidy, who mislaid his Senate superior to a Trump-backed challenger successful May, outlined that his rationale for supporting the erstwhile warfare powers efforts had been "because we were not being briefed."

"We could beryllium the Senate, the Congress, oregon the United States, and I felt important that we beryllium briefed," helium said. "I agreed with the president's archetypal goals, those were not being achieved by my perception, and truthful earlier I could say, 'okay, everything's hunky dory,' I said I request to beryllium briefed."

When asked what helium heard astatine the briefing that changed his mind, the Louisiana Republican said if the archetypal objectives were to degrade Iran's atomic capability, its ballistic missiles and accepted warfare capabilities, it appeared to him that the objectives "can beryllium reached." 

"Now we person to spot but verify, but arsenic they laid it out, they person a plausible program by which to execute those, and that's what I was funny in," Cassidy said. 

Cassidy, a aesculapian doctor, said he's ever "going to effort and get arsenic overmuch accusation arsenic imaginable to travel to the information of someone's diagnosis and the information of however to dainty that problem."

"You contradict maine that information, and I'm going to beryllium frustrated, due to the fact that my occupation is to service with the accusation I person earlier me," helium said. "I instrumentality that aforesaid ethic to nationalist service."

Cassidy said "If you're not telling maine answers, I'm going to propulsion for those answers." 

"So, erstwhile the president was berating the 4 radical that voted for the War Powers Act, frankly, I'm not determination to beryllium berated," helium said. "And the president wasn't invited to crockery retired verbal abuse."

During the gathering with the president, Cassidy said helium raised his manus and asked whether the president was asking a rhetorical question connected wherefore the tiny radical of Republicans had supported the Iran measure. 

"He goes, 'I'm truly interested.' I stood up and I said, 'this is why,' and I listed those objectives that I did not spot being achieved, and however the benignant of endpoint of the warfare kept stretching retired longer and longer," Cassidy said. "He began to talk implicit me. Unfortunately, I raised my measurement to lucifer his."

Cassidy said "I shouldn't person mislaid my temper, nor should he, but you know, my woman volition archer you each present and then, my Irish temper gets the champion of me."

"But constituent being, I needed to know. I request to cognize to service my radical and my authorities and my country," helium said. "As it turns out, I got a briefing afterwards."