Louisiana senator on changing his vote on the War Powers Resolution, whether anyone will hold President Trump accountable and more
WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA) - Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) spoke with Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan about why he changed his vote on the War Powers Resolution.
The Senate blocked the resolution, which would have required congressional approval for continued U.S. military involvement against Iran, 50-47 Wednesday.
The vote came amid ongoing debate over the Trump Administration's handling of Iran following recent military strikes and a ceasefire agreement.
In the interview, Sen. Cassidy explains his reversal just a day after he and President Donald Trump got into a shouting match at a Senate GOP meeting on Wednesday.
"If the original objections were to destroy, degrade, if you will, Iran's nuclear capability, their ability to do a ballistic missile, and their conventional warfare capability, and we were supposed to be out of there in four to five weeks with maybe a little bit of a sprinkling of regime change, that's how it came across. 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, and with those other three objectives- now we have to trust but verify, but as they laid it out, they have a plausible plan by which to achieve those, and that's what I was interested in."
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.)
During the interview, Brennan and Cassidy talked about a few Republicans, like himself, who will be leaving Washington in January and are starting to speak, "with more candidness and frustration," about President Trump and the way things are going on Capitol Hill.
This prompted Brennan to ask if anyone will hold the president accountable once Cassidy and his colleagues, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), are gone, to which the senator said:
"The simple answer will be yes. The men and women who serve in Congress, by and large, love our country. I mean, they all love our country deeply, and by and large they will do what is required. Now, when you're running for office, you have to be aware of what your voters are interested in. You have to talk about what your voters are interested in if you want to get reelected, but in the Senate, at least, there's that space of four years prior to that, and I think you see every, every, every period, those senators that step up and say we need something different, we need more. The Senate is a separate body, separate from the presidency. I think we're seeing that."
Brennan followed up by asking if Trump understands it, and Cassidy said:
"I don't know if the president does. Sometimes he acts as if Congress is merely an appendage, and frankly, sometimes Congress acts like it's an appendage. But that said, I think he got the message yesterday. Congress wants to be read in, and Congress has our rules and procedures that our Founding Fathers set up, and they set it up precisely so that there would not be too powerful of an institution of a presidency designed to reflect all of the American people, not just the will of one person."
Later in the interview, Brennan and Cassidy talked about the consequences of ignoring benefits of vaccines brings for public health.
The senator specifically mentioned a big outbreak of the flu in the military after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed the flu mandate.
"If you ignore history, history doesn't necessarily repeat, but it has a rhythm, and we can look back in World War I, where the Spanish flu went through decimating armies, but one of the reasons the Germans collapsed is because so many people died from Spanish flu that they had...and didn't have manpower to fulfill, that their lines began to collapse. Combat readiness means preventing disease, and if you want to be combat ready, you don't want everybody out with the flu."
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.)
Cassidy also added:
"When our Founding Fathers pledge their life, their fortune, and their sacred honor, there is a sense that we all have to one, achieve, to achieve those inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. There has to be also a spirit of sacrifice among everyone else, and so if we're speaking about how to protect others...obviously more people being immunized makes it less likely that someone else gets ill. Now, there is a consequence to not obeying the science of immunization, and one is children dying from measles, as has occurred, and thousands getting sick, with many in the hospital. So, I would argue unfortunately, facts can be a tough, tough teacher. Protect yourself, talk to your doctor, but society has a vested interest, as we all do, in we all being protected."
When asked about Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Sen. Cassidy said, "He has not restored trust in public health, and you can see the administration, if you believe the press accounts, are trying to limit his range of activity. Polling shows that the American people understand that vaccines are important."
He also said the Secretary Kennedy serves Trump's pleasure when asked if he thinks Kennedy will still be in his role once the senator leaves.
The senator, who voted to confirm Kennedy as HHS Secretary, added, "If you build public health upon a foundation of lies, then you're going to have the absence of adequate public health."
He criticized the Trump administration's linking the MMR vaccine and Tylenol to autism.
"But putting them on a guilt trip because they gave their child a Tylenol, or they took Tylenol when they were pregnant, is not the answer," said Cassidy. "You don't make that mom guilty. What you do is you invest those resources into finding the true answer."
Despite voting for Kennedy, Sen. Cassidy expressed the secretary broke promises to him.
"At this point, the commitments that were made to me have been violated," said Cassidy. "If you lose trust, you lose everything here. And by the way, the ability to work with others is essential for our government to function."
To watch Brennan's full interview with Cassidy, click here.
