President Questions Senator Over War-Powers Vote at Lunch Meeting

A Republican senator who supported a war-powers resolution faced questions from the president during a private lunch about why any senator would back the measure. The resolution, passed the previous day, seeks to halt further military strikes. The senator told the president that the operation had already gone beyond the four-week limit originally stated.

The senator said he would keep voting for similar resolutions until the Senate receives a formal briefing on the operation. ” The senator said he raised his voice in response before sitting down to de-escalate the situation.

The confrontation followed the senator’s loss in a Republican primary last month. The primary outcome was driven in part by the senator’s vote to convict the president in a 2021 impeachment trial. The president had backed the senator’s primary opponent.

The senator said the president raised the primary defeat during the argument. Before the primary loss, the senator had largely supported the president’s policies and nominees.

Other senators present offered limited public comment. ” A third senator, who also lost a primary to a president-backed challenger, called the meeting “quite a unity message” before stepping into an elevator. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the senator’s account of the meeting.