WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) apparently forgot that he’s supposed to be helping President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees avoid saying that Trump lost in 2020, when a hot mic picked him up asking his staff why they won’t just say Joe Biden won.
“What would be wrong if they said Biden won?” Grassley, the 92-year-old chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was heard loudly asking his aides in a Wednesday hearing.
It’s hard to make it out, but you can hear Grassley’s question right around the 1:17:20 mark of the hearing. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) turns his head as Grassley speaks, and in the background, some staffers look surprised by what they heard. Two people who were in the hearing room later confirmed to HuffPost they heard Grassley ask his full question.
The GOP senator’s question came as Blumenthal was in the middle of asking four of Trump’s judicial nominees who won in 2020. All refused to say Biden won.
Trump’s court picks have been routinely dodging this question, apparently afraid of angering Trump by saying he lost and potentially having their nominations pulled. Instead, they’ve been giving strangely worded responses about how Biden was “certified” as president, or just that he “served” as president. Both of those responses allow them to skip over the part about Biden actually winning, and instead get to the part about him becoming president.
