Updated on: June 28, 2026 / 8:21 AM EDT
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The following is the full transcript of an interview with Sen. Bill Cassidy that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on June 28, 2026. This interview was conducted on June 25, 2026. MARGARET BRENNAN: So, Senator, as I understand it, the Vice President and Special Envoy Witkoff gave you a special briefing in the Situation Room late Wednesday on Iran. What you heard made you change your vote? Why are you no longer trying to stop the president from resuming strikes in Iran? SEN. CASSIDY: That actually was not my original rationale for voting for the War Powers Act. My original rationale was because we were not being briefed. We could be the Senate, the Congress, or the United States, and I felt important that we be briefed. I agreed with the president's original goals, those were not being achieved by my perception, and so before I could say, okay, everything's hunky dory, I said I need to be briefed. After the exchange I had with the president yesterday, I passed a note to Steve Witkoff. Steve, I would consider changing my vote, but I've been voting yes because I've not been briefed. He said, 'Call me back in the hour and let's have a briefing' We had it last night.MARGARET BRENNAN: What did you hear that changed your mind?SEN. CASSIDY: So, 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.MARGARET BRENNAN: You wanted to get the details on the diplomacy?SEN. CASSIDY: Correct.
