Republicans, who control both the House and Senate, are preparing to leave town for the July 4 recess — seeing their efforts to govern once again go down in flames at the hands of the party’s leader, President Donald J. Trump.
Trump stormed into the Senate on Wednesday for a meeting with members of the GOP caucus over a range of issues, highlighted by his push for the chamber to pass the SAVE America Act. The legislation is a wide-ranging piece of GOP priorities for reforming electoral systems, which includes voter ID mandates as well as efforts to cut back on mail-in ballots, which Trump baselessly views as a vehicle for fraud.
As he entered the luncheon, he was asked by members of the press if the standoff over the legislation was worth blowing up Congress’ current agenda: A bipartisan housing affordability package cheered on by both Republicans and Democrats. That was due to be signed into law by Trump today, but he canceled the signing and ceremony over his ongoing SAVE America Act-related frustrations. Trump’s sudden shift has many worried that the legislation could become a victim of his angry refusal to accept that the Senate GOP lacks the votes to pass voter ID or eliminate the filibuster.
“Every election is important. We’re doing very well. They want a lot of communists to come in…and this country is not going to have communists,” Trump told reporters, dodging the question in the Senate lobby while presumably referring to the three Democrats endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America who won House primary races in New York City on Tuesday.
Inside the meeting, according to senators, was a contentious clash between Sen. Bill Cassidy and the president, whom Cassidy called out over the peace agreement to extend the ceasefire with Iran. Though the Louisiana Republican tried to defuse the situation by calling Trump “brother” during their exchange, according to multiple reports, the two were “yelling” at each other, according to Cassidy himself. CNN’s Manu Raju reported that Trump called Cassidy a “lunatic” during the exchange.
“I perceived it as an attempt to bully me for asking a question that I think the American people need to know,” Cassidy told reporters afterwards.
“I lost my temper,” admitted Cassidy. “It’s the Irish in me.”
He added: “I matched his tone and his volume, and it went back and forth…I sat down and tried to de-escalate, I guess my point is, though, that the American people need to know more than we are being told. The Senate needs to know.”
Trump himself projected unity after the luncheon in a brief set of remarks to reporters, standing next to Senate Majority Leader John Thune. News outlets described Wednesday’s luncheon, which was not called by Thune but by Sen. Rick Scott, as a “snub” of the GOP Senate leader in the days leading up to it but the pair clearly sought to dismiss that image as the meeting played out. Trump, however, didn’t directly answer a repeatedly shouted question from reporters — whether he had confidence in Thune’s leadership.
Scott, speaking to a group of reporters after the lunch concluded, wouldn’t go into the blow-up between Cassidy and Trump, other than confirming that the president had been “forceful” in his discussion with the senator over the memorandum of understanding (MOU) to extend the ceasefire.
“The president was very forceful about what he cares about. My goal was to try to bring people together, to try to bring — to get his agenda done, and make sure we all work together for that,” said Scott, calling it a “good event”.
Scott told reporters that the president didn’t say whether he’d veto the housing affordability legislation passed this week by the House and Senate if the SAVE America Act was not also sent to his desk. Trump issued a threat to veto a separate piece of legislation to reauthorize the FISA surveillance authority of the federal government if the voter ID bill was not passed, and on Wednesday left Republicans in both chambers dismayed when he canceled plans for a signing ceremony around the housing bill on Capitol Hill — even as some lawmakers were already arriving to the event. Now, the House and Senate are preparing to leave town for the July 4 holiday recess, still without a deal to bring FISA authority back online.
The housing bill received enough votes in both chambers to withstand Trump’s veto. But the president’s opposition could flip some Republicans who’d be hesitant to go on record as voting against him.
“I’m just gonna go to meetings in my office,” Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina told a reporter as he informed her, upon her arrival, that the event was cancelled.
“That was his call to make,” Thune told CNN of the cancellation. “What I would say is that the bill is a bill that’s been worked on for a long time. It’s an affordability issue, and eventually I hope he’ll find his way to sign it.”
Sen. Thom Tillis was more direct in his frustrations: “There is a huge group of people who really appreciate what the President is doing right now, and it’s the Democrat Party.”
The housing bill represents the first bipartisan policy win for the Trump administration this year, and perhaps the only one coming as November’s midterm elections draw ever closer. The bill, championed by lawmakers ranging from Thune to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in the upper chamber, would bar investors from purchasing some single-family units and aims to cut down on restrictions around the process of homebuilding around the country.
If signed into law, it would mark the first major action by the GOP-led Congress to directly address affordability at a key moment for Republicans as well as Democrats who helped the bill build veto-proof majorities in both chambers. But Donald Trump could be about to grind that progress completely to a halt.
