ICYMI: Grassley Joins Playbook Deep Dive Podcast

ICYMI: Grassley Joins Playbook Deep Dive Podcast

WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, this week joined Eugene Daniels on POLITICO's Playbook Deep Dive podcast to discuss immigration policy, reconciliation, presidential pardon authority and the importance of bipartisanship.

Audio and excerpts of the interview follow.

On Kash Patel and President Trump's nominees:

"I did meet with Kash [Patel] in my office… I want somebody that's going to help me do my constitutional responsibility of oversight… that's my job, and I do a lot of oversight. I want Kash Patel to get me the answers to these questions and provide me the documents I need.

"Whether it's RFK or the CIA Director... I think there's a lot of things in this town that need to be shaken up… they're coming in to deliver on the mandate of this election, which is that people are fed up with the way Washington's going. You've been in this town long enough to know that it's an island surrounded by reality. The common sense that we have in the Midwest - we need more of it in Washington, D.C. and I think the [nominees] are going to bring it in, and Kash is one of them."

On immigration policy, the Laken Riley Act and deportations:

"Talking about comprehensive immigration [policies], what makes it so difficult to do that is, you've got people on the right, maybe 10 to 15 Republicans that say, 'I'm not going to vote for anything unless you get all 20 million people out of this country.' And then you have people on the left that say, 'I'm not going to vote for any immigration bill that doesn't make everybody citizens yesterday.' It's tough to put together.

"The last time you could get 65 or 70 votes for a comprehensive immigration bill was 2013… but I think it's difficult to be any Republican or Democrat and say that we shouldn't change laws that allow people with a criminal record to come into this country, and not only with a criminal record, committing a crime by coming here against our law, but then committing a murder."

"First of all, [deportations will focus on] people that are on the terrorist watch list, people that have a criminal record and the 1.5 million people who have been adjudicated that they're not entitled to asylum… I think we've got to see how successful that is before we move to the people that maybe the only crime they committed was entering our country illegally."

On reconciliation:

"The House has a view [that] we should have one reconciliation bill. The Senate has a view [that] there should be two reconciliation bills. A President helping us maneuver through that disagreement is very important, and Trump's a good person to do that."

On presidential pardons:

"I think it's wrong the way [pardons] have been used recently... But I think the Constitution would have to be amended to change it, and I think it's very clear that what Biden did, even if I disagree, or Clinton, what he did, or maybe some future president... I think they got the power to do it.

"Biden's pardoned people like Fauci, that's never been accused of anything. Some president could say, you know, we've got 340 million people in this country, I'm going to pardon them all. That doesn't make sense… It's a way of protecting people, but it's an abuse of their authority."

On the importance of bipartisanship:

"[Partisanship] is a major problem now, more so than it's been in the 45 years since I've been in the Senate, but it's not as bad as what my constituents see… I think that people get the impression that Republicans don't talk to Democrats, and that's not true. There's not a single Republican or Democrat that I dislike in the United States Senate. I don't think any of them dislike me, and if they do, I don't want to know who they are.

"You can't get anything done in the United States Senate if it's not bipartisan, except for reconciliation, and so the institution drives some of that [bipartisanship]… I believe that when people are talking, things get done. It's when you don't talk that things don't get done."

On Grassley's personal priorities:

"Peace around the world. I thought after we broke up the Soviet Union, that would bring in a whole new world, and it did for a while. But there's a lot of leaders that want more, and you wonder, why? Why does China want Taiwan? Why does Putin want Ukraine? Why does he want to reestablish the Soviet Union? That's my concern.

"I think there's got to be something bigger than just yourself, or bigger than 340 million Americans. There's got to be some certainty to life. It can't be as simple as, 'question authority.' It can't be as simple as, 'just do it.' There's got to be a measure that you measure yourself against, and I think that's a being beyond humanity. I call it God. For me, it's following Jesus Christ."

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