Washington, United States. President Donald Trump faced pointed criticism from fellow Republicans over the Iran war in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, shortly before his administration asked Congress for tens of billions of dollars to pay for the conflict. Later that day, the Senate voted to block a resolution calling for an end to hostilities with Iran.
Closed-door Republican meeting
Several Republicans who attended said Trump engaged in a shouting match with Senator Bill Cassidy, who said the administration needed to explain a framework deal Trump signed last week that gives Iran financial incentives but falls short of the goals he laid out at the start of the war.
“The American people need to know more than we are being told,” Cassidy told reporters. “It does not appear, although I don’t know for sure, that the course of this is going the way that we were told.”
Senate vote
Later on Wednesday, the Senate’s Republican leaders scheduled a late-night vote to block a resolution calling for an end to hostilities with Iran in what appeared to be an effort to please the president.
The Senate voted 50 to 47, largely along party lines, to block a war powers resolution that had advanced on a procedural vote in May.
Cassidy, who had voted for recent Iran war powers resolutions, voted no, and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a Republican who also had voted in favor of war powers resolutions, voted present.
Two Republicans, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted with every Democrat except one in favor of the resolution. Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democratic no vote.
Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Michael Bennet of Colorado did not vote.
Trump response and political impact
“This vote puts Iran on notice,” Trump said on social media after Wednesday’s late-night vote, although it does not affect the earlier vote.
The high-volume lunchtime exchange with a member of Trump’s own party underscored how the war has weighed on Trump ahead of the November elections that will determine control of Congress.