Senate Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) pleaded ignorance when questioned by reporters on Tuesday about whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had legal authority to break into people’s homes without a warrant from a judge.
According to Igor Bobic of HuffPost, when Grassley was posed the question, the answer he gave was, “Ask a constitutional lawyer. I’m a farmer.”
Grassley, age 92, has served multiple terms heading up the Judiciary Committee, where he has been responsible for, among other things, vetting and shepherding through the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees.
Ironically, in 2014, the Iowa Senate race that went on to elect Grassley’s junior colleague Joni Ernst was shaken up when her Democratic opponent, then-Rep. Bruce Braley, was raked over the coals by Republicans and the Iowa press for telling a room full of attorneys in Texas that Grassley’s background as a farmer made him unqualified to chair the Judiciary Committee.
“If you help me win this race you may have someone with your background, your experience, your voice, someone who’s been literally fighting tort reform for 30 years, in a visible or public way, on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Or, you might have a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school, never practiced law, serving as the next chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee,” said Braley at the time. He gave a lengthy apology when the remarks were leaked.
While Grassley deflected the question, other GOP senators are increasingly raising alarms about ICE tactics and Homeland Security leadership in general. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Bobic he objects to “the idea that you can write your own warrant,” while Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have outright called for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s resignation.
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