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WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump berated Senate Republicans face to face on Wednesday for allowing a vote to block his war in Iran, further escalating a feud that has diverted GOP efforts to focus on election-year affordability issues and brought much of the chamber's business to a halt.
Invited by Florida Sen. Rick Scott to speak at a GOP luncheon in the Capitol, Trump had signaled ahead of time that he would use the closed-door meeting to push senators to pass his proof-of-citizenship voting bill. But the conversation was more focused on Tuesday's vote to approve the war powers resolution, a mostly symbolic measure that allows Congress to rebuke the administration's military actions. The House passed its own version of the resolution earlier this month.
Trump had particular words for the four Republican senators who voted with Democrats on the measure -- Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana -- after calling them "losers" on social media.
Most Republicans stayed quiet. But Cassidy, who lost re-election in his primary last month after Trump endorsed an opponent, stood up and defended his vote.
"I stood and said, 'You have not told the American people what's going on,'" Cassidy told reporters after the meeting. "This was supposed to last four weeks, it's lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved."
The two men "went back and forth," Cassidy said, and he "matched his tone and volume." Cassidy said that he eventually de-escalated, but he did not want to be bullied.
"I am voting for war powers until I get a briefing," he said afterward.
Trump repeatedly told Cassidy to sit down, according to a person familiar with the private meeting who was not authorized to discuss it. At one point, the president called the senator a "lunatic."
Publicly, Trump said afterward that they had "a really great meeting." But he hinted at the discord.
"We like everyone in the room," Trump told reporters on his way out. "I don't like a few people, but that's OK."
The luncheon capped weeks of friction between Trump and Senate Republicans and added a new layer of frustration as Tuesday's vote was the first time the Senate had adopted a war powers resolution on the Iran war.