Kaine, Cassidy discuss Iran war powers fight and Trump clash with Republicans
Cassidy said a late-night briefing changed his Iran vote, while Kaine pushed new guardrails on Pentagon firings as Trump pressed Senate Republicans.
Bill Cassidy said a late-night Situation Room briefing from Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff helped change his vote on the Iran war powers resolution, putting the Louisiana Republican at the center of a widening fight over presidential authority and congressional oversight. The debate unfolded as President Donald Trump faced fresh friction with Senate Republicans over Iran, military power and the limits of executive action.
Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said his initial support for the War Powers Act stemmed from a basic complaint: Congress had not been briefed. After the briefing, he said he believed the administration had a plausible plan to reach its stated goals. Those goals, he said, included degrading Iran’s nuclear, ballistic-missile and conventional warfare capabilities, while regime change was off the table. Cassidy cautioned that lawmakers still needed to “trust but verify.”
The exchange came as Trump met with Senate Republicans, underscoring how Iran policy has become a test of party discipline as well as war powers. Cassidy’s shift on the resolution highlighted the pressure GOP lawmakers face when the White House argues for secrecy and speed on military decisions, even as senators demand access to the legal and strategic rationale behind them.
Tim Kaine pressed a different side of the same institutional fight. The Virginia Democrat said bipartisan guardrails on Pentagon firings could win support in Congress, a warning born from the recent string of high-level military departures during Trump’s second administration. Kaine has been one of the Senate’s most persistent critics of unauthorized military action against Iran. A June vote on a similar resolution gained bipartisan support even though it did not advance.
The June 28 broadcast followed an earlier June 21 program that described U.S.-Iran diplomacy as a truce and noted political pressure over Iranian ballistic-missile concessions. Jan Crawford joined the program as CBS News’ chief legal correspondent to discuss the remaining Supreme Court decisions.
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