Cassidy discusses Trump clash, Iran war powers, Blanche vote

Bill Cassidy’s support for Todd Blanche helped lock in the attorney general nominee’s 50-49 confirmation, even as the Louisiana Republican was still carrying a public break with Donald Trump over Iran war powers. Cassidy announced on Aug. 7 that he would back Blanche, leaving Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska among the Republicans opposed when the Senate confirmed Blanche.

That same Cassidy was on the guest list for Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, alongside NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders. CBS News says the program airs Sundays at 10:30 a.m. ET on CBS and 12:30 p.m. ET on the CBS News app, and its transcript archive includes full 2026 episodes from the show.

Cassidy’s recent comments have exposed how the Republican coalition is still being managed through personal intervention from Trump and his aides. A June 28 transcript from the program captured Cassidy discussing a heated meeting with Trump over Iran and health care policy, after a June 25 account showed the senator changed his support for a Democratic-led measure aimed at restricting Trump’s war powers in Iran only after he secured a briefing from Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

That sequence put a sharp edge on a long-running fight over whether Congress has any real leverage when a president pushes military action in the Middle East. Cassidy’s reversal helped strip momentum from a bipartisan effort to put limits on Trump’s authority over Iran, and it underscored how quickly Republican resistance can soften once the White House brings members back into the room.

Blanche’s confirmation showed a different, but related, Republican calculation. Cassidy sided with Trump’s choice for attorney general despite the narrower coalition and despite opposition from Collins and Murkowski, who joined Democrats in voting no. The 50-49 result reflected a Senate GOP willing to absorb some internal dissent to keep the president’s top personnel picks moving.

Taken together, Cassidy’s war-powers reversal and his Blanche endorsement mapped the fault lines inside the party: a small group of senators still willing to test Trump’s power, and a larger bloc that ultimately falls back in line when the president presses the case.