Trump spars with GOP senators on Iran war powers, pushes SAVE America Act
by Lindsey McPherson · The Washington TimesPresident Trump berated four Republican senators Wednesday for undermining his leverage with Iran while making an appeal to them and the broader Republican conference to do whatever it takes to pass the SAVE America Act.
The president’s approach to his lunch meeting with Senate Republicans at the Capitol did not resolve any of the party’s internal disputes. It may even have exacerbated tension in some corners of the conference.
Mr. Trump ignited a shouting match over a war powers resolution with Sen. Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Republican, who lost his primary last month after the president endorsed an opponent.
“If someone tries to bully me. … I ain’t going to put up with that,” Mr. Cassidy told reporters after the meeting.
Mr. Trump’s blunt approach was expected, but not his move a few hours before lunch to cancel a bill-signing ceremony for a bipartisan housing affordability package.
The president announced on social media Wednesday morning that he was scrapping plans to sign the housing bill “until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE America Act, which I consider to be a National Emergency.”
The fate of the housing bill was not addressed in the meeting, but House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said he expects Mr. Trump to sign the housing bill within the 10-day window the Constitution allows for signing or vetoing legislation. He had spoken with the president earlier Wednesday.
The House-passed SAVE America Act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot. Mr. Trump wants to add a ban on universal mail-in voting and provisions cracking down on pro-transgender policies.
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Several Senate Republicans had planned to use the meeting to convince Mr. Trump that the bill lacked the votes to pass and to urge him to focus instead on affordability issues, such as the housing bill, which Republicans can campaign on in the upcoming midterm elections.
Whether they realized after Mr. Trump’s move to cancel the bill signing that he would not be swayed, or whether they wanted to avoid the wrath the president unleashed on Mr. Cassidy, no Republican pressed that point in the meeting.
“We’ve made it clear multiple times that if the SAVE Act requires nuking the filibuster, it’s simply not going to happen,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, North Carolina Republican. “And that’s been obvious long before today.”
The president has allies in the Senate who want to continue the fight.
Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican, who invited Mr. Trump to the Capitol as chair of the Republican Steering Committee that hosted the lunch, said his goal was to get the party on the same page about what it needs to win in November.
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“Part of that is we got to get the SAVE America Act passed,” Mr. Scott said.
Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican and lead author of the SAVE America Act, said he was pleased that Mr. Trump endorsed his idea to use the talking filibuster to circumvent the 60-vote requirement for cutting off debate.
Republican leaders have dismissed the talking filibuster as unworkable because it gives Democrats unprecedented control to force procedural and substantive votes to undermine the legislation.
Mr. Lee does not see that as a reason not to try.
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“We’ve got the ability to withstand the siren call to chase after a squirrel in the middle of a debate on legislation that we decide we need passed,” he said.
Although passing the SAVE America Act was the president’s closing message at the lunch, he spent most of the meeting discussing his administration’s peace negotiations with Iran and laying into the four Republican senators he said had voted to undermine him.
The Senate approved a war powers resolution Wednesday, directing the president to end hostilities with Iran unless Congress authorizes the use of military force.
Mr. Cassidy was one of four Republicans who helped Democrats pass the measure, along with Sens. Susan M. Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
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When Mr. Trump asked during the meeting why anyone would vote for the war powers resolution, Mr. Cassidy asked whether it was a rhetorical question or whether he really wanted to know. The president welcomed an answer, so the senator gave him one.
“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. Our original objectives have not been achieved, and I want to know what’s going on,’” Mr. Cassidy said. “I can’t tell you that’s verbatim, because obviously I was speaking.”
The senator said Mr. Trump “did not particularly care” for that assessment and raised his voice in response.
“I lost my temper. That’s not appropriate. It’s the Irish in me,” Mr. Cassidy said. “But I matched his tone and his volume, and it went back and forth.”
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Some of his colleagues urged Mr. Cassidy to sit down and de-escalate the situation, so he did. Still, the senator said he did not regret speaking out.
“I make no apologies for standing up to the president, if you will, trying to demand that more information be shared with the Senate, and more information be shared with the American people,” he said.
In brief remarks to reporters before the meeting, Mr. Trump tried to paint a rosy picture of the conflict with Iran.
“The war is going very well,” he said. “As you know, we’re winning by a lot. Iran is making very big concessions. We’ll see what happens, but it’s been very, very, very powerful. It’s going very, very well.”
Outside of Mr. Cassidy’s recounting his exchange, which was leaked in real time by someone in the room, few senators wanted to discuss the meeting.
Several offered sarcastic remarks about the confab.
“Lots of Republican love on Republicans,” Mr. Paul said.
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Lindsey McPherson
lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com
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