Sen. Harkin: Braley’s ‘Farmer from Iowa’ Comment Wasn’t A Big Deal

Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety member Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, questions witnesses, during a Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety hearing on "Coal Miners' Struggle for Justic... Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety member Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, questions witnesses, during a Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety hearing on "Coal Miners' Struggle for Justice: How Unethical Legal and Medical Practices Stack the Deck Against Black Lung Claimants" on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 22, 2014. Robert Bailey, 61, a retired coal miner from Princeton, W.Va., who suffers from black lung disease has urged Congress to help clear a backlog of claims of fellow miners who have the disease. (AP Photo) MORE LESS
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Republicans have gleefully attacked Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) for scoffing at the possibility that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), once a farmer, could become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee if control of the Senate flips. But outgoing Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) suggested in an interview with The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Braley’s comments weren’t such a big deal.

“This may not be the time to say this,” Harkin began, according to the Times. “I watched it and I watched it again, and I thought, ‘What’s the hubbub about?’ He said on that tape that if the Senate goes Republican, a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school will be chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Everything he said is absolutely true. He didn’t lie. He didn’t utter a falsehood. He just said it matter of factly.”

“To my way of thinking, I’d say so what’s the problem here?” he continued. “They said, ‘Well, he was dissing Grassley.’ How can you diss someone about which they are proud? I think Chuck Grassley is pretty proud of the fact that he didn’t go to law school and he’s going to be chairman of the Judiciary Committee — first time ever. What’s wrong with that?”

The comments by Braley were one of the biggest moments of the Iowa Senate race and were surfaced by the Republican-leaning opposition research shop America Rising. Braley made them during a closed-door fundraiser with trial lawyers in Texas.

Braley is in a tight race against state Sen. Joni Ernst, the Republican nominee for Senate. The TPM Polltracker finds Ernst with a 2.3 point lead over Braley.

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