Trump lunch with Republican senators becomes shouting match
by Lisa Hornung · UPIJune 24 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump's lunch with Republican senators Wednesday was meant to heal differences. Instead, it turned into a shouting match.
After Trump and senators merged from the closed-door event, several senators said the meeting was contentious, with Trump angry about how four Republican senators voted Tuesday with most Democrats to limit his war powers.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Trump was "mad as a murder hornet" about the vote, The Washington Post reported.
"Put yourself in his shoes," Kennedy said. "He's right in the middle of delicate negotiations and the Senate votes to get out of Iran."
Trump reportedly got into a shouting match with Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., over Cassidy's criticism of the Iran war during the meeting. Cassidy -- who lost his primary recently after Trump endorsed his opponent -- was one of the Republicans who voted for the war powers act Tuesday.
CNN reported that Trump asked why any Republican would support the war powers act, and Cassidy said the president had not been forthcoming about the war.
"It was supposed to last four weeks," Cassidy said he told Trump. "It's lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved. And I want to know what's going on."
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who also lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed opponent, was also at the meeting. He commented, "quite the unity message," when leaving the meeting, CNN reported.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., a doctor, said the luncheon was "very much like a hospital board meeting where a bunch of doctors are yelling at each other," The Washington Post said.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., had invited the president to the lunch, which he hosts weekly on Capitol Hill.
"I just bring people to lunch and create a conversation, and I think there's a greater chance something good will happen," Scott told The New York Times.
Scott told the Times that he hopes the group will discuss plans to avoid another government shutdown in September, but he said Trump "continues to want to pass the SAVE America Act, and there's other issues -- cost of living, stuff like that."
Earlier Wednesday, Trump canceled plans to sign a housing affordability act backed by both Republicans and Democrats and passed by both the House and Senate with overwhelming approval. Trump said he wouldn't sign it until Congress passes the SAVE America Act, which he considers a greater priority.
The law would require voters to prove their citizenship before they register to vote, and critics say it could disenfranchise millions.
On Tuesday in Pennsylvania, Trump told reporters that the election bill would be his main focus at the meeting.
"Well, we're just going to talk about SAVE America," he told reporters in Reading, Pa. "We have to pass it. So we're going to have to talk about that, and many other things."
When a reporter asked Trump about Senate Republican leader Sen. John Thune's belief that the legislation wouldn't pass, Trump implied that Thune, R-S.D., could get it passed.
"That's what being a leader is about," he said. "John is a leader, and hopefully he can get the votes."
Cassidy, a SAVE Act co-sponsor, said on Monday, "It doesn't have the votes, and so it's time to talk about something else."