Cassidy and Kaine weigh Trump clash over Iran war powers vote

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was recorded on June 25, three days after a closed-door meeting in Washington turned into a tense clash between Donald Trump and Republican senators. CBS’s June 28 Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan featured Cassidy and Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia as the Trump administration’s rupture with Senate Republicans over Iran deepened. Brennan opened the program on the fragile detente between the United States and Iran, while chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford also joined the hour moderated by Brennan.

Cassidy’s segment focused on the explosive meeting and why he changed his vote on the Iran war powers resolution, a question that became central after Senate Republicans came under heavy pressure from Trump. In late June, Republicans later reversed course in a follow-up vote after Trump berated GOP senators over the measure.

Kaine’s appearance on the same June 28 broadcast gave the hour a second angle on the fight, from the Democratic side. Kaine discussed the Democratic Party’s shift to the left, alongside the immediate political fallout from the Iran vote and the widening arguments over how aggressively Congress should check the president on war powers.

The Senate’s late-June votes on war powers measures prompted a public break between Trump and Republican senators, with Cassidy among the targets after the president’s criticism of GOP holdouts.