GOP Senator Cassidy NUKES Trump, RFK Jr, and Pulte

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "GOP Senator Cassidy NUKES Trump, RFK Jr, and Pulte"

Bulwark Takes – June 30, 2026
Host: Will Saletan (The Bulwark)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Bulwark Takes features Will Saletan analyzing a candid, headline-making interview with outgoing Republican Senator Bill Cassidy (Louisiana) from CBS’s Face the Nation. Cassidy, unburdened by reelection, delivers scathing criticisms of Donald Trump, the current GOP, Trump’s controversial appointee Bill Pulte, and RFK Jr., now Secretary of Health and Human Services. Saletan walks listeners through Cassidy’s rare public candor on issues ranging from foreign policy and affordability to vaccine mandates, political corruption, and the collapse of traditional conservative principles.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Cassidy vs. GOP Talking Points on Iran

• Cassidy deconstructs the Republican spin that the U.S. “won” the conflict with Iran, arguing the opposite.
  • Quote [02:11]:

    “A medium-sized power at this point is perceived to have fought a superpower to a draw requiring some measure of accommodation of we the superpower... we spent $29 billion and we have 13 Americans dead. We hope to get back to status quo ante.”
    — Bill Cassidy

  • Saletan underscores that Cassidy calls the Iran deal a “fig leaf” and likens it to America's exit from Vietnam.

2. Trump’s Priorities and Housing Affordability

• Cassidy rebukes Trump’s focus on showmanship over substance, specifically regarding Trump blocking bipartisan housing.
  • Quote [03:44]:

    “If I were president, I'd be focused on what that family around the kitchen table is looking at as they go through their bills.”
    — Bill Cassidy

  • Saletan notes: “Trump has other priorities, and those are not making life more affordable for Americans.” [04:01]

3. Denouncing Bill Pulte’s Appointment

• Cassidy sharply criticizes Trump’s intention to appoint Bill Pulte, calling him fundamentally unfit for the role.
  • Quote [04:33]:

    “My objection to Bill is that he used personal information to target a political enemy of the president … That is disqualifying for someone to be the Director of National Intelligence.”
    — Bill Cassidy

  • He frames this as an abuse of government power, “turning the government into a weapon.” [05:15, Saletan]

4. Legal Impunity for Trump Family

• Cassidy objects to Trump’s DOJ insulating his family from all investigations.
  • Quote [06:34]:

    “…absolving somebody of any crime which they or their family may have … seems more, I am above everybody else and I should be held to a different standard. Leaders should be held to a higher standard. And making one person above the law is wrong.”
    — Bill Cassidy

5. Congressional Cowardice and Role

• Cassidy openly discusses Congress’s failure to stand up to Trump.
  • Quote [07:24]:

    “The Senate is a separate body, separate from the Presidency. I think we're seeing that.”
    — Bill Cassidy

  • Brennan presses: “Do you think the President understands that?”
  • Cassidy: “I don't know. If the President does, sometimes he acts as if Congress is merely an appendage. And frankly, sometimes Congress acts like it's an appendage.” [07:30]

6. RFK Jr., Vaccines, and Betrayal

• Cassidy reveals regret over helping confirm RFK Jr., who misled him on vaccines.
  • Quote [09:34]:

    “…that broke an agreement that I had with the secretary that was not supposed to happen. So once you lose trust in somebody, you're not quite sure what to trust going forward. In fact, you don't trust anything. If you build public health upon on a foundation of lies, then you're going to have the absence of adequate public health.”
    — Bill Cassidy

  • Cassidy fiercely defends vaccine mandates as a social and military necessity. [10:25, 11:06]

7. Conservative Foreign Policy: Soft Power & Vaccines

• Cassidy champions U.S. vaccine aid as “soft power” essential for global leadership.
  • Quote [12:06]:

    “We are in a global geopolitical competition with China… the PEPFAR program and immunization… is soft power. It is better than sending troops… Bobby [RFK Jr.] was opposed to it because he had some foolish notion about the dangers of vaccines. But instead, we see people dying of disease.”
    — Bill Cassidy

8. How Trump and Allies “Rigged” Cassidy’s Primary

• Cassidy describes how Trump’s team changed Louisiana’s primary rules to oust him.

  • Quote [13:09]:

    “We used to have an open primary in which 1.2 million people could vote… they closed it to 400,000, trying to distill it down to those who are least likely to vote for me. And among those, the critical issue is, is who did the President endorse? He endorsed somebody different.”
    — Bill Cassidy

• Saletan sums up: “You could say Trump and his allies rigged the election against Cassidy. I mean, that's what Trump would say if anybody did it to him.” [13:28]

9. Cassidy’s Response to Defeat and Trump’s Retaliation

• Cassidy pointedly refuses to claim the primary was stolen — a jab at Trump’s 2020 claims.
  • Quote [13:46]:

    “I don't complain about it. I don't go around saying the election was stolen. That's not the thing to do. The thing to do is these are the rules. I play by them. Let's move on.”
    — Bill Cassidy

• Cassidy lost his seat for voting to convict Trump after January 6th.
  • Quote [14:15]:

    “I voted to uphold the Constitution. The president was offended by that… it came down to the president being offended that I voted to support the Constitution in his trial. And so that was it. Let's just acknowledge it.”
    — Bill Cassidy

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Iran [02:11]: “A medium sized power at this point is perceived to have fought a superpower to a draw... we hope to get back to status quo ante.” — Bill Cassidy
• On Trump Administration’s priorities [03:44]: “If I were president, I'd be focused on what that family around the kitchen table is looking at as they go through their bills.” — Bill Cassidy
• On Bill Pulte [04:33]: “You should not be using the force of government to crash upon somebody just because the person in charge does not like them…” — Bill Cassidy
• On DOJ “blanket immunity” [06:34]: “Making one person above the law is wrong.” — Bill Cassidy
• On RFK Jr.’s betrayal [09:34]: “If you build public health upon on a foundation of lies, then you're going to have the absence of adequate public health.” — Bill Cassidy
• On soft power and vaccines [12:06]: “That is soft power. It is better than sending troops.” — Bill Cassidy
• On rigged primary rules [13:09]: “They closed it to 400,000, trying to distill it down to those who are least likely to vote for me…” — Bill Cassidy
• On losing with integrity [13:46]: “I don't complain about it. … The thing to do is these are the rules. I play by them. Let's move on.” — Bill Cassidy
• On voting to convict Trump [14:15]: “I voted to uphold the Constitution. The president was offended by that…” — Bill Cassidy

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:14 – Will Saletan introduces Cassidy and the Face the Nation interview
• 02:11 – Cassidy slams the GOP’s Iran narrative
• 03:38 – Cassidy on Trump blocking housing support
• 04:33 – Cassidy’s opposition to Bill Pulte’s appointment
• 05:56 – Cassidy on DOJ’s deal to shield Trump’s family
• 06:34 – Cassidy: “making one person above the law is wrong”
• 07:24 – Cassidy discusses Congressional responsibility
• 09:34 – Cassidy regrets confirming RFK Jr.; betrayal on vaccine policy
• 10:25 – Cassidy on the social responsibility of vaccination
• 11:06 – Military vaccine mandates and readiness
• 12:06 – Cassidy: Soft power and immunization as American strategy
• 13:09 – Cassidy explains how Trump’s allies rigged the primary
• 13:46 – Cassidy refuses to claim the election was stolen, hits Trump
• 14:15 – Cassidy on why Trump went after him: “I voted to uphold the Constitution”

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Tone and Takeaways

• Candid, blunt, and principled: Cassidy holds nothing back, giving voice to disillusioned conservatives and those frustrated by Trumpism’s dominance.
• Defining moment: Cassidy’s testimony stands as a rare act of Republican dissent—an “I had nothing to lose” moment.
• Host’s bottom line: Saletan affirms the need for more “Bill Cassidys” willing to sacrifice career for truth and principle:

  “We can’t have a safe, healthy country as long as one of our two major parties is run by liars and sycophants and crooks. So we need more Bill Cassidy's… to speak out and stand up when it counts.” [14:27]

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This summary provides a comprehensive, timestamped walkthrough of Cassidy’s devastating critique of the GOP under Trump, the rollback of conservative values, and the personal and political price of integrity.

Transcript

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[Will Saletan]

Will Salatan from the Bulwark. So do you ever wonder what Republican senators really think about Donald Trump? I mean, I'm not talking about, you know, the MAGA heads that you see on tv. I'm talking about old fashioned pre Trump Republicans. Do they think it's okay that this idiot, this dirtbag is running their party? Well, today I'm going to show you what one of them thinks. Bill Cassidy. He's a Republican senator from Louisiana and he's on his way out of Congress so he's got nothing to lose. And on Sunday he did an hour long interview on Face the Nation and he said he said what he really thinks about Trump. So let's roll the tape. All right, so the first topic was Iran. The Republican talking point on Iran is that we totally won the war and Iran is begging us. They're begging us for a deal.

[Bill Cassidy]

They are begging to make a deal, not me.

[Will Saletan]

That's not what Cassidy thinks. Here's what he said.

[Bill Cassidy]

But the fact is that a medium sized power at this point is perceived to have fought a superpower to a draw requiring some measure of accommodation of we the superpower. And we spent $29 billion and we have 13Americans dead. We hope to get back to status. Quo ante.

[Will Saletan]

Ouch. He's right. When Cassidy talks about accommodation, he's talking about the fact that this deal that we signed with Iran makes all kinds of concessions, like it commits us to help raise $300 billion for Iran, and it lets Iran decide how to open the Strait of Hormuz. So that is not. That's not the kind of deal that you sign with somebody you just defeated in a war. Right. It's a fig leaf to let us get out of a war like we got out of Vietnam. And did you hear what Cassidy said at the end, the part about how we hope to get back to the status quo ante? So, in case you're not aware, that's Latin for saying that when the war is over, we'll be lucky, we very lucky to get back to where we started before the war. Okay, next topic. Affordability. So the interviewer, Margaret Brennan, brought up Trump's decision to block a bill that would have helped more people afford housing.

[Margaret Brennan]

He canceled that event on the bipartisan housing bill, which had strong support from both sides of the aisle. It was aimed, at least at affordability.

[Will Saletan]

And Cassidy's answer was basically that Trump doesn't really care about affordability.

[Bill Cassidy]

Clearly, he wants the SAVE act passed. So you can say that is a priority. What I think should be the priority is, how do you make life more affordable for the American people? If I were president, I'd be focused on things differently. If I were president, I'd be focused on what that family around the kitchen table is looking at as they go through their bills.

[Will Saletan]

If I. If I were president, says Cassidy, meaning the guy who actually is President Trump, he has other priorities, and those priorities are not making life more affordable for Americans. So then Brennan asked about Trump's appointment of Bill Pulte. Bill Pulte is a totally corrupt political hitman, and Trump is appointing him as Director of National Intelligence. And Cassidy said, no way, no way. He said, this guy should not have that job.

[Bill Cassidy]

My objection to Bill is that he used personal information to target a political enemy of the president.

[Margaret Brennan]

At the Federal Housing Administration.

[Bill Cassidy]

At the Federal Housing Administration. Using personal data. Now, if we have an inalienable right. I have. You have. The woman targeted has an inalienable right to life. Liberty in the pursuit of. Of happiness. I'm a conservative. You should not be using the force of government to crash upon somebody just because the person in charge does not like them or finds them inconvenient. The fact that Bill did that is disqualifying for someone to be the Director of National Intelligence.

[Will Saletan]

Remember when conservatives used to talk that way? Limited government, don't abuse power to persecute people. Some of them still believe that Cassidy believed that. And he's calling out his own president's appointee for doing that, for turning the government into a weapon. And he's calling out Trump's Department of Justice, which is led by Trump's former personal lawyer, Todd Blanche. He's calling them out for signing a ridiculous deal that basically insulates the whole Trump family from any tax related investigation, even if they commit crimes.

[Margaret Brennan]

They also said the US Is forever barred from prosecuting any claims against President Trump, his family, his businesses, and all related or affiliated individuals. Do you still object to that? Do you need Blanche to say something more clearly on that point?

[Bill Cassidy]

I absolutely object to that. And I don't think that agreement should hold the force.

[Will Saletan]

That agreement. That agreement was signed by our government under the control of Donald Trump to protect Donald Trump and his family from investigation. It literally puts the President above the law. And Cassidy comes right out and says

[Bill Cassidy]

it, absolving somebody of any crime which they or their family may have objected to, may have committed. Not just in terms of IRS audits, but like anything seems a little bit far afield from the self sacrifice that our founding fathers embraced. It seems more, I am above everybody else and I should be held to a different standard. Leaders should be held to a higher standard. And making one person above the law is wrong.

[Will Saletan]

So why isn't Congress doing anything about this? Why are they sitting there while the President puts himself above the law? It's because they're cowards. It's a symbiotic relationship between a ruthless president and a gutless Congress. Cassidy is in Congress, so he knows. Listen to what he says.

[Bill Cassidy]

The Senate is a separate body, separate from the Presidency. I think we're seeing that.

[Margaret Brennan]

Do you think the President understands that?

[Bill Cassidy]

I don't know. If the President does, sometimes he acts as if Congress is merely an appendage. And frankly, sometimes Congress acts like it's an appendage.

[Will Saletan]

And that brings us to Cassidy himself. Right? He, he also gave in to Trump. Cassidy voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. As Secretary of Health and Human Services. And boy, does he regret it. Cassidy totally regrets this.

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[Will Saletan]

30% off so here's what the situation was. Cassidy is a doctor and he believes in vaccines. Kennedy is a quack and he spreads conspiracy theories about vaccines. So to get Cassidy's vote, Kennedy promised to modify what he was going to say and do about vaccines. And then Kennedy broke his word.

[Bill Cassidy]

I can tell you that that broke an agreement that I had with the secretary that that was not supposed to happen. So once you lose trust in somebody, you're not quite sure what to trust going forward. In fact, you don't trust anything. If you build public health upon on a foundation of lies, then you're going to have the absence of adequate public health.

[Will Saletan]

Lies, Betrayal. Cassidy got played and now he's just telling it like it is. Kennedy lied and Kennedy is still lying. And Cassidy's not going to shut up about vaccines. He's trying to remind people, including his fellow Republicans, that vaccination is a social responsibility. You don't just get vaccinated to protect yourself, you do it to help control the spread of disease.

[Bill Cassidy]

There has to be also a spirit of sacrifice among everyone else. And so if we're speaking about how to protect others, obviously more people being immunized makes it less likely that someone else gets ill. There is a consequence to not obeying the science of immunization and one is children dying from measles as has occurred, and thousands getting sick with many in the hospital.

[Will Saletan]

And it's not Just measles. And for that matter, it's not even just Kennedy. So other people in the Trump administration are also rolling back vaccine requirements. Right. And they're doing it even in the military, where vaccine rules are completely normal.

[Bill Cassidy]

This administration, parts of it, have tried to downplay the importance of immunization. The Secretary of War, Hegseth recently did away with the flu mandate, and then there was a big outbreak of flu in one of their military outfits. Combat readiness means preventing disease. And if you want to be combat ready, you don't want everybody out with the flu.

[Will Saletan]

This is basic stuff. Republicans, they used to believe in military readiness. They used to believe that when you sign up, you sign up to do whatever is necessary to protect your unit, including vaccination. Cassidy is trying. He's just trying to reassert that very traditional conservative attitude, and he's trying to reassert a conservative foreign policy where vaccines were. They were part of an American agenda to help the world and build goodwill for our country.

[Bill Cassidy]

We are in a global geopolitical competition with China. One thing that has helped us tremendously in sub Saharan Africa is the PEPFAR program and immunization programs in which people there thank the United States and are predisposed to work with us. That is soft power. It is better than sending troops. It's cheaper than sending troops. It's a humane thing to do. And by the way, it's in states the United US Interest. Bobby was opposed to it because he had some foolish notion about the dangers of vaccines. But instead, we see mo no people dying of disease.

[Will Saletan]

Now, you might ask, how does Cassidy get away with saying all this stuff? How does he stay in the Senate as a Republican when he's telling the truth about Trump and Hegseth and Kennedy? And the answer is, he's not getting away with it. Cassidy just lost his primary, and he lost it because Trump decided to get rid of him. And how did Trump and Trump's allies get rid of Cassidy? They changed the rules about who could vote.

[Bill Cassidy]

We used to have an open primary in which 1.2 million people could vote for or against me, and they closed it to 400,000 trying to distill it down to those who are least likely to vote for me. And among those people, the critical issue is, is who did the President endorse? He endorsed somebody different.

[Will Saletan]

In other words, you could say Trump and his allies rigged. They rigged the election against Cassidy. I mean, that's what Trump would say, right, if anybody did it to him. But Cassidy doesn't say that. In fact, he says he's not gonna do what Trump did when Trump lost in 2020.

[Bill Cassidy]

I don't complain about it. I don't go around saying the election was stolen. That's not the thing to do. The thing to do is these are the rules. I play by them. Let's move on.

[Will Saletan]

Damn. That's a pretty clear shot at Trump for Trump's lies about the stolen election in 2020. And when Margaret Brennan asked Cassidy why Trump decided to take Cassidy down, Cassidy said the answer was obvious. It's because Cassidy voted to convict Trump at his impeachment trial after January 6th.

[Bill Cassidy]

And we know why. I voted to uphold the Constitution. The president was offended by that, but really it came down to the president being offended that I voted to support the Constitution in his trial. And so that was it. Let's just acknowledge it.

[Will Saletan]

So that's it. Cassidy stood up for the Constitution. He stood up to Trump. He told the truth. And he admitted that Trump committed high crimes and was unfit to be president. And for that, for that, Cassidy lost his job. But you know what? He didn't lose? He didn't lose his integrity. Look, I hope Democrats take back the House and Senate this fall because we desperately need to take down this crazy MAGA Republican Party. But we can't have a safe, healthy country as long as one of our two major parties is run by liars and sycophants and crooks. So we need more Bill Cassidy's. We need them to speak out and we need them to stand up when it counts.

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