Did you really think we’d forget about Chuck Grassley’s terrible week? It was just so bad that we thought we’d dedicate a whole edition of Takeaways to him!
Patty Judge scored a strong primary victory on Tuesday night, officially kicking off the general election showdown by promising that she is the one Judge Chuck Grassley can’t ignore. If it wasn’t bad enough Grassley drew the strongest Democratic opponent of his career, he woke up Wednesday morning to a brutal editorial from the Des Moines Register slamming him for his failure to stand up to Donald Trump’s racism.
Des Moines Register Editorial: Grassley ignores judicial crisis and Trump’s racism
“The president is only one-half of the process,” the Iowa senator said Monday, “and the Senate’s the other half. And we’re a check on the president.” But what sort of a check would Sen. Grassley be as head of the Senate Judiciary Committee? Just how diligent would our senator be in reviewing the nominees chosen by a man who has categorized Mexican immigrants as rapists and who initially refused to disavow support from white supremacists?
Just a few weeks ago, Grassley expressed confidence that Trump would nominate the “right type of people” to the U.S. Supreme Court. And this week, Grassley didn’t seem at all perturbed by Trump’s remarks about Judge Curiel, which have been widely denounced and described even by House Speaker Paul Ryan as the “textbook definition of a racist comment.”The best Grassley could muster was this: “I would not say what Trump said.”
As Edmund Burke said, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. And when it comes to Donald Trump, there are invertebrates that have shown more spine than Sen. Charles Grassley.
The headlines only got worse from there, as he stumbled through interviews with reporters and gave more and more absurd excuses for his support of Trump:
TPM: Grassley: Of Course Trump Respects Judges, Look At All The Lawsuits He Won!
“He must respect the judiciary,” Grassley said Monday, according to Roll Call. “I’ve seen statistics that he’s won over 400 cases, only lost 30.”
Radio Iowa: Grassley says Iowans aren’t very concerned about Trump’s tirade against judge (AUDIO)
“I can only tell you what I would do in a like situation and I wouldn’t say what Trump said,” Grassley said. “On the face of it, I disagree with Trump’s assessment, but I’ve also got to tell you I don’t know the facts of the case and whether there’s some disagreement.”… But Grassley suggested this controversy involving Trump and the judge is not an issue of major concern to Iowans.
Roll Call: Grassley: Senate Can Be a Check on Trump’s Judges
Grassley said Trump’s comments do not raise concerns about who he would nominate to the federal courts since the Senate would have to confirm his picks.
And just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse for Chuck Grassley on the first day of his general election campaign, they did. Grassley compared Trump’s widely condemned racist attacks on a federal judge to comments Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor made about being a Latina justice. That…didn’t go well:
Des Moines Register: Grassley equates Trump’s judge comments with Sotomoyor’s ‘wise Latina’ logic
Washington Examiner: Grassley echoes Drudge’s defense of Trump
Politico: Sen. Grassley compares Trump’s attacks to Sotomayor’s ‘wise Latina’ remarks
MSNBC: Grassley sees a bizarre equivalence between Trump, Sotomayor
TPM: Grassley Compares Trump Judge Attacks To Sotomayor’s ‘Wise Latina’ Remark
AP: The Latest: Senator equates Trump’s comments to Sotomayor’s
Think Progress: A Top Republican Senator’s Ridiculous Defense Of Donald Trump’s Racism
With stories like these, no wonder Grassley felt forced to weakly walk back his comments just hours later.
TWEET OF THE WEEK, GRASSLEY EDITION: This special Grassley tweet of the week goes to Brian Duffy for this great cartoon about how ridiculous and dangerous Chuck Grassley’s defense of Donald Trump is: “@duffyink: How can @ChuckGrassley continue to defend Trump?#DonaldTrump#doubledownpic.twitter.com/rZ7IaGp8Ab”
So congrats, Senator Grassley, on your first week of the general election campaign. Looks like you’ve got a long road ahead…
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