Bill Cassidy accuses Trump of treating Congress as ‘merely an appendage’

Out-going Louisiana senator's rebuke over Iran war is rare instance of a Republican politician standing up to Trump

Bill Cassidy, the Republican senator from Louisiana who is being ousted from his position after Donald Trump successfully backed a challenger in May's primary, has accused the US president of treating Congress as merely an appendage" in his handling of the Iran war.

In an interview on Sunday with CBS News's Face the Nation, the out-going Cassidy explained his recent face-to-face row with Trump over the president's failure to brief Congress on the prosecution of the hostilities with Tehran. In a fleetingly rare instance of a Republican politician directly standing up to Trump, Cassidy let rip at a Capitol Hill lunch over the senator's support for a war powers resolution that was a symbolic rebuke to the White House.