Grassley: I’d campaign with Trump
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) isn’t shying away from campaigning with Donald Trump, as Democrats race to link GOP incumbents to the party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
“The answer is yes. I think that you ought to ask him if wants to campaign with me. If he asks me to campaign with him, I would,” Grassley told two Iowa reporters during a phone interview on Thursday.
{mosads}Grassley’s comments were posted on his office website, but have largely gone overlooked. American Bridge, a Democratic super-PAC, posted clips of the interview on YouTube Tuesday.
He added in the interview that he’ll also be at the party’s convention in Cleveland next month, though he won’t be a delegate.
Democrats have made Grassley, who is running for reelection, a top target and are using the fight over the Supreme Court vacancy as ammunition against the Judiciary Committee chairman.
Grassley, during the call, said he was comfortable with Trump picking justices, pointing to his recent list of potential picks.
“I wasn’t certain about where Trump was coming on these issues but I’ve very satisfied that he’s going to put the people on the Supreme Court along the lines of what I want,” Grassley said.
In a separate release from the senator’s office, titled “Reid v. Reality,” he points to remarks from Vice President Biden from 1992 in which he argued against the Senate taking up a Supreme Court nominee in an election year.
The White House has argued those remarks are being taken out of context by Republicans.
Grassley added during the call that he has concerns about where Trump “stands on a lot of policy issues” and said he disagrees with Trump’s “religious test on Muslims.”
Some Republicans have raced to distance themselves from Trump this week after he has continued to claim that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel has “an absolute conflict” in presiding over fraud lawsuits against Trump University because of his Mexican heritage.
Grassley, who previously supported Curiel, said in a statement that “I wouldn’t say what Mr. Trump said.”
Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) lashed out at Grassley during a floor speech Tuesday morning, saying that he has “used his committee for partisan purposes that benefit only one person: Donald Trump.”
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