The first question Sen. Chuck Grassley faced at his inaugural forum at City Hall 2022 in Oelwein was whether, at heart, he felt the 2020 presidential election was “honest” or “cheated.”
“Biden was elected president, that’s what I said on December 16th [2020] when the votes were tallied and things like that, but since then I’ve spent on what we can do to bring America together and solve some of the problems we have,” the senator replied.
He was likely referring to his statement made two days before that date when the Electoral College confirmed Joe Biden had won 306 electoral college votes to Donald Trump’s 232. not expressing their own opinion as to whether they thought it was right or not. For the year and several months after, they have repeatedly questioned various aspects of the election and Biden’s victory.
That wasn’t enough for Lonnie Cantrell, longtime high school coach at Oelwein, who pressed the senator again.
“You have not answered my question. Do you think the election was stolen?” he asked.
“I think there were a lot of irregularities in the election, but the election went the way it is and that finality was December 12 or 13 or 14 and I said Biden got elected president,” Grassley said . “I don’t know what more you can say.”
Grassley’s stop in Oelwein, where about 40 people gathered at the city’s public library, was the first public stop on his 2022 99-county tour. He had made several private stops in other counties in northeast Iowa earlier in the day.
The state’s top senator, who is running for an eighth term in the US Senate this year, covered a variety of issues, from politics-heavy issues to online conspiracies.
Several residents raised issues related to monopolies and farm prices, including rising phosphorus prices and the lack of competition in the meatpacking industry.
“This is one place where I would compliment the Biden administration for doing something that is long overdue,” Grassley said of his actions toward meatpackers. “…We need to increase competition. OK, one of them was in cattle, for example.”
Grassley mentioned the Packers and Stockyard Act as part of a possible solution.
“It was never vigorously enforced,” he said of the 1921 law. “Well, [Sec. of Agriculture Tom] Vilsack is vigorously enforcing this law. The second [solution] is antitrust law. Well, I never thought that the Justice Department was very sympathetic to agriculture or knew much about it, but there is some antitrust investigation into it.”
The senator also mentioned a bill he and several colleagues introduced that aims to increase price transparency to discourage packers from gouging farmers.
An independent financial adviser who works as an independent contractor asked Grassley about the PRO Act, a Democratic proposal that would increase workers’ ability to organize for better wages and benefits in the country. Some independent contractors and freelancers have also raised potential concerns about parts of the legislation.
“It would be to resist it,” Grassley said, was his intent on the PRO Act. “Is that a good answer? … I’ve been fighting this battle for as long as I’ve been in Congress, just the way you want it … There are people who believe that if you’re an independent contractor, you’re a crook and aren’t paying your fair share.”
Various other questions revolved around internet technology companies, student loan repayments, immigration and Hunter Biden.
“That’s something, if you really want to get into the weeds, you get someone to pull my speeches off the internet. I bet a dozen speeches on this so you can get my feelings on it.” Grassley shared his thoughts on Hunter Biden with a questioner.
Several attendees raised concerns about COVID, including denying vaccination requirements. After Grassley simply explained why the Supreme Court invalidated private companies’ vaccination requirements but allowed the healthcare provider to have one, some in the crowd urged him to use his own position to fight such requirements harder.
A woman who has several family members who work in healthcare complained that they had to get vaccinated even though they had already contracted COVID and therefore had antibodies.
“That’s not true of the scientists advising this administration, and perhaps the same ones who advised the Trump administration,” Grassley replied. “You don’t get credit for natural immunity, and you should have credit for that… Yes, in fact, almost a year ago there was an Israeli study that said natural immunity was more than 27 times greater than vaccination.”
Perhaps what Grassley was referring to was this August 2021 non-peer-reviewed study where the figure was actually 13 times that, although the study also found that those with antibodies were still better protected from serious health consequences of COVID in the future are when you also got a vaccine dose.
A fact check pointed out the problems with the way right-wing social media posts phrased it to suggest that the vaccines made you more likely to contract COVID, and also left out various other aspects of it.
Another participant spoke up and noted that antibody immunity and vaccines decline over time, which is why doctors recommend booster shots.
“You’re both right,” Grassley said.
by Pat Rynard
Posted on 01/17/22
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