This week Sen. Chuck Grassley said he will do all he can to prevent “a third term of an Obama administration,” which is his pet term for another Democratic candidate in the White House after two terms of Barack Obama. In an interview with Iowa Public Radio, he said the Republican Party has “plenty of time and plenty of precedent for the division within the party now to be worked out and that process is already underway.”
Asked about the GOP nominee, Donald Trump, a reality-television star and real-estate developer, Grassley said he would like to meet Trump to discuss policy.
The billionaire candidate has never held an elected office and Grassley called attention to Trump’s lack of experience.
“He’s a business person, he’s a chief executive of a major firm. He probably makes all the decision, or close to all of the decisions, and when you become chief executive of the United States you’re only one branch of three of the government,” Grassley said.
Grassley referred to himself in the third person to explain his own role during a Trump presidency, “I would want to meet with him, to acquaint him with Chuck Grassley, the whistle-blower protector. The person that is going to be pushing transparency in a Trump Administration just like I do in a Bush or Obama Administration.”
Grassley has also faced substantial criticism and attack for the stall tactics of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
On Wednesday, Democratic Senators and allies will hold a press conference in Washington, D.C. with former Grassley supporters brought from Iowa.
Nevada Sen. Harry Reid said Grassley will “be involved for the first time in three decades in a race for the Senate.”
An April poll showed that Grassley’s stalwart support among Iowans was slipping. Many who were polled cited his refusal to hold a hearing on Pres. Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland as the reason for abandoning Grassley.
Grassley will face a Democratic challenger in November from a field of candidates that includes Iowa State Sen. Rob Hogg, former Lt. Gov. Patty Judge and former lawmakers Tom Fiegen and Bob Krause.
Grassley, Iowa’s senior senator, is just a few months younger than the oldest-serving U.S. Senator, California’s Dianne Feinstein. Both were born in 1933.
