“I threw a tantrum,” Cassidy told reporters. “That’s not appropriate. It’s the Irish in me.”
President Trump responds to housing bill
President Trump has cited the housing bill, arguing that low interest rates are the key to improving affordability.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump made most of his remarks Wednesday as he headed to the Capitol for an unusual closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans.
Few lawmakers asked him questions. There wasn’t much of a chance, they later admitted. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said the president himself “spoke for an hour and 15 minutes.”
But one Republican was a notable exception.
A particularly heated exchange involved U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana congressman who fell out of favor with President Trump several years ago following his impeachment conviction over the Jan. 6 riot. Since Cassidy was re-elected in the Republican primary earlier this year, he has fiercely opposed the administration on a variety of political fronts, including the Iran war.
Cassidy, whose support for ending the war was critical to the success of several Senate policies, told reporters after the meeting that he made his dissatisfaction clear.
Cassidy told Trump that “our original objective has not been achieved,” and that the president “didn’t really care about what I said,” before “raising his voice.”
After weeks of internal party feuding, the exchange stood out as one of the few moments of open defiance from Republican senators face-to-face with President Trump.
Just two hours before the tête-à-tête, President Trump once again disrupted Congress’ schedule by abruptly refusing to attend the signing ceremony of a landmark housing bill that passed both chambers of Congress this week. He said he won’t sign the bipartisan bill, an election-year victory, until Republicans pass the Save America Act. The bill is a major voting restriction bill, but key senators say it doesn’t have enough support in Congress to realistically pass.
It was not clear at Wednesday’s meeting whether Republicans had reached a solution on how to resolve the impasse, but this is just the latest issue that is driving a wedge between Republicans and the president.
But “a voice has been raised,” said Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.).
Marshall, who like Cassidy is an internist, said it was “like a hospital board meeting with a bunch of doctors yelling at each other.”
At one point, Cassidy referred to Trump as “brother” rather than “president,” said West Virginia Republican Sen. Jim Justice.
“Obviously there was a little back and forth between Bill Cassidy and the president,” he said. “They have bad feelings. That may be fair, but it may not be.”
Mr. Cassidy acknowledged that he could have been more calm, but that his tone and volume were tailored to Mr. Trump’s.
“I threw a tantrum. That’s not appropriate,” he said. “It’s the Irish in me.”
Zachary Schermele is USA TODAY’s Congressional Correspondent. You can email us at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him at @ZachSchermele on X and @zachschermele.bsky.social on Bluesky..
