'Mission accomplished': Bill Cassidy reveals what yelling at Trump got him on the Iran war
EXCLUSIVE: After his heated exchange with President Trump over Iran, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) says Special Envoy Steve Witkoff stepped in to arrange the classified briefing that ultimately affected his vote on the war powers resolution.
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) June 25, 2026
“I passed a note to Steve Witkoff... He… pic.twitter.com/w2K2CcdP1a
WASHINGTON, DC: Bill Cassidy, who flipped the recently approved war resolution bill after a shouting match with President Donald Trump, revealed why he changed his vote and what he gained after raising his voice at Trump.
The Louisiana Republican said that the heated conversation with Trump during the GOP luncheon at the Capitol on Wednesday achieved his “mission” of securing more information on the Iran war.
Cassidy backed a successful war resolution to limit Trump’s power on Tuesday, June 23, before flipping his stance on Wednesday and voting against it.
Bill Cassidy explains heated exchange with Trump over Iran
Trump confronted four Republicans, Sens Rand Paul (Ky), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Cassidy, at the GOP luncheon for backing the resolution. This later turned into a heated match between Trump and Cassidy.
“My original rationale is because we were not being briefed — we, the Senate, the Congress of the United States. And I felt it was important that we be briefed,” Cassidy said to CBS News’s Margaret Brennan.
Cassidy said he “raised his volume” to match Trump’s during the back-and-forth and conceded, “I shouldn’t have lost my temper.”
He then gave a note to special envoy Steve Witkoff, saying if he received a proper briefing on Iran, he might change his vote.
JD Vance and Steve Witkoff brief Bill Cassidy over Iran war
Cassidy conceded that he later received a briefing from Vice President JD Vance and Steve Witkoff in the White House Situation Room, accomplishing his so-called mission.
Cassidy revealed that during the briefing, officials outlined their objectives focused on degrading “Iran’s nuclear capability, their ability to do a ballistic missile, and their conventional warfare capability.”
Cassidy further added that regime change was not part of the war objective.
I want to thank Vice President Vance and Special Envoy Witkoff for the thorough briefing this afternoon on Iran. I appreciate the quick invitation to the White House to address many of my concerns.
— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) June 25, 2026
“The regime change is off the table. That doesn’t seem as if that’s going to happen. But it does seem, as if the way they laid it out, the other three objectives can be reached,” he said. “As they laid it out, they have a plausible plan by which to achieve those, and that’s what I was interested in.”
The briefing addressed Cassidy’s concerns that originally led him to support the war powers measure, prompting him to reconsider his position and change his mind.
