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Grassley On GOP Schism: We've Got Plenty Of Time

Amy Mayer / IPR file
Iowa's senior senator, Republican Chuck Grassley, says the GOP has plenty of time to unite behind apparent presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Sen. Chuck Grassley says the Republican Party has time to unite behind real estate mogul Donald Trump, the apparent GOP presidential nominee, before the November Election. That's in spite of the fact that several prominent Republicans have withheld their endorsements.

Grassley points out that Trump has meetings this week with high-profile Republicans Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan, the latter of whom has yet to endorse the apparent nominee. Grassley says he assumes Republicans who aren’t yet supporting Trump will have an open mind and listen to what he has to say.

"We've got plenty of time and plenty of precedent for the division within the party now to be worked out and that process is already underway," says Iowa's senior senator. 

Grassley says he would also like to meet with  Trump, in order to discuss policy and his views on executive oversight. 

"I would want to meet with him, to acquaint him with Chuck Grassley, the whistle-blower protector. The person that is going to be pushing transparency in a Trump Administration just like I do in a Bush or Obama Administration," says Iowa's senior senator. 

Because Trump is the executive of his own organization, Grassley adds that Trump may not be familiar with how Congress operates and is used to making all of the decisions. 

"He's a business person, he's a chief executive of a major firm. He probably makes all the decision, or close to all of the decisions, and when you become chief executive of the United States you're only one branch of three of the government," says Grassley. "A president proposes and a congress disposes." 

Grassley vows to do everything he can to prevent what he calls “a third term of an Obama administration,” which he says would be the case if the nation’s elects a Democrat.