Cassidy says White House briefing changed his Iran war powers vote

Bill Cassidy said a White House briefing changed his mind on a war powers vote over Iran, after the Louisiana Republican had signaled he would keep backing the resolution until he received more information. Cassidy told Margaret Brennan he passed a note to Steve Witkoff saying he would consider changing his vote if he were briefed, and CBS News said he had been voting yes because he had not been briefed.

The reversal followed a bruising 50-48 Senate vote on June 23 that approved a war powers resolution intended to direct the removal of U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran. The Associated Press said it was the first time the Senate had approved a war powers resolution to block U.S. military action against Iran, a rare congressional assertion of authority over the use of force.

Cassidy’s shift came after a heated closed-door Senate Republican lunch with Donald Trump on June 24, when the Louisiana senator said he “lost my temper.” The episode laid bare the fracture inside Senate Republicans over presidential war powers, with Cassidy and Rand Paul initially joining three other Republicans in support of the resolution before later backing away after the confrontation with Trump. Senate Republicans were split between institutional claims for congressional control and deference to the White House’s handling of Iran.

The broader fight is already moving through Congress. Senate roll-call records and Congress.gov documents show multiple Iran war-powers resolutions circulating in 2026, including S.J.Res.104 and S.J.Res.118, as lawmakers tested whether Congress would try to restrain military action without a formal authorization. The June 25 procedural reversal showed how quickly that coalition could unravel once the White House engaged directly with Republicans who had been withholding support.

CBS News posted the June 28, 2026 transcript of Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan in its 2026 archive, underscoring how central Cassidy’s account has become to the public record of the fight. What changed his vote was not a new battlefield development, but a White House briefing, a narrow procedural shift that helped blunt one of the clearest Senate rebukes of Trump’s Iran policy.