Iowa Senator Jim Carlin makes an absurd claim in a recent press release alleging Chuck Grassley bought his grandson’s votes for the Iowa House Speaker position.
In a disastrous interview for Carlin conducted by WhoNewsRadio1040’s Simon Conway, Carlin uses an incident of a house member coming up to him at a fundraising event wanting to endorse him but claims they could not since Chuck Grassley already gave them a “big” check.
“Had somebody research it-some interesting things came up,” said Carlin noting FEC filings in the interview.
Ever since the incident, Carlin asserts how such an experience proves how Iowa house candidates can be bought; his caveat to his unshaken accusation: “You’d have to ask them that,” regarding finding those actual house candidates that can or can not be bought.
Confused? You’re not the only one.
Yet when host Simon Conway pried Carlin, Carlin’s facade of prosecutorial truthful prowess and justice fell apart.
“I thought the purpose of the Hawkeye PAC was to ya know-and he said this in his emails, in his fundraising, that we need to be sure to keep the Senate majority, well he didn’t give any money to those Senate Georgia candidates when the majority was on the line.”
“He gave $10,000 for Georgia for Senate,” replied Conway.
Carlins’ additional unfounded accusations include Chuck Grassley not giving money to the Iowa House for decades and how $300,000 of the Hawkeye PAC went to house candidates who supported Pat Grassley.
Public records show Chuck Grassley has had a record of donating to the Iowa House long before his grandson became involved in politics. For example, Chuck Grassley gave over $100,000 in 2016 and almost $200,000 in 2018 towards state and local candidates, reports opensecrets.org regarding the Hawkeye PAC.
The Hawkeye PAC has also contributed a $198,700 donation to U.S. Senate races for the 2020 election cycle, including $10,000 to Georgia.
“Are members of your own party in the Iowa Senate for sale?” asked Conway
“You’d have to ask them that,” replied Carlin.
Representative Bobby Kaufmann gave a scathing response in a follow-up call in response to Carlin.
“I was going to call that exchange by Senator Carlin desperate, but that was so embarrassing that desperation doesn’t even-I’m not sure who advised him to attack the integrity of the entire House Republican Caucus, but that’s the kind of ineptitude that I’ve come to expect from him,” said Kaufmann.
The rebuttal didn’t stop there.
“There’s one quick analogy, in the NFL the last pick is known as Mr. Irrelevant, whether if it’s his time in the Iowa House or President Trump ignoring him when he came or his role in Iowa politics, Jim Carlin is Mr. Irrelevant in Iowa Politics,” lambasted Kaufmann.
Iowa Field Report reached out to David Young, former Grassley Chief of Staff and former Congressman of Iowa’s Third District, for his thoughts.
“I listened to Carlin’s interview, and his accusations were desperate and absurd. Senator Grassley’s care and concern for Republicans up and down the ticket is exactly what we need to fight back against out-of-state progressives like Tom Steyer, Michael Bloomberg, George Soros, who are meddling in our elections and trying to influence Iowa voters. Thank God for Chuck Grassley,” said Young.
All information available to the public contradicts Carlin’s false assertions and accusations against Chuck Grassley.
