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Chuck Grassley could become US President: Third-in-line to Oval Office has a history of controversies

While everyone is debating on who to pick as Ruth Bader Ginsburg's replacement, Senator Chuck Grassley seemed to be oddly interested in informing the world about a dead pigeon

After the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday (September 18), President Trump hinted that he had a list of candidates ready to fill the Supreme Court vacancy and while everyone is debating on who to pick, Senator Chuck Grassley seemed to be oddly interested in informing the world about a dead pigeon. Grassley, third in line to become the president, made several heads turn over his fixed attention on a drowned pigeon.

When Orrin Hatch's Senate term ended on January 3, 2019, Grassley became the most senior Republican in the Senate. He was elected president pro tempore of the Senate for the 116th United States Congress, making him third in the presidential line of succession. 

“If u lost ur pet pidgin /it’s dead in front yard my Iowa farm,” Grassley, an inventive speller at age 87, wrote on Twitter. “JUST DISCOVERED.” The Republican Senator added a series of identifiers for the bird before punctuating the tweet: “Sorry for bad news.”

Grassley has gained a reputation for flying funky, oddly punctuated missives onto social media. In 2012, he posted several times about deer he came across. “Fred and I hit a deer on hiway 136 south of Dyersville,” he wrote in October 2012. “After I pulled fender rubbing on tire we continued to farm. Assume deer dead," he added.

On Saturday, September 19, he again tweeted, "I assumed deer dead bc it was night and no carcas." A few minutes later, he added: “But in case of this pidgin i could actually pick up bird."

When it comes to Grassley's opinion on Ginsburg's replacement, he had held up the nomination process of Judge Merrick Garland in 2016, saying President Barack Obama’s choice shouldn’t receive a hearing during the final year of the administration and had told Fox News in 2018 he would not support a Supreme Court nomination vote in 2020 following the commitment he made in 2016, adding “that's a decision I made a long time ago." But while we are yet to learn his decision regarding Ginsburg's seat, let us delve deeper into Grassley's political life.

In 1981, Grassley stated that he considers himself to be "pro-life" and expressed concern regarding the potential of abortions to be paid for with federal funds. He voted in favor of the constitutional amendment by Hatch that stated, that both Congress and the states to ban or regulate abortion. Later, the 'Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act' was co-sponsored by him in 2019.

Grassley who is a consistent supporter of NRA-supported gun-related laws has an "A" rating, from the National Rifle Association (NRA). According to a source from Splinter News, Grassley received $9,900 from the NRA during his 2016 election. In 2016, after the Orlando nightclub shooting, he proposed a legislation to expand state-to-state access to background check data and to make it illegal for government officials to sell criminals guns as part of sting operations. Both proposals were rejected by the Senate.

In 2015, he voiced his opinion on the bipartisan Senate bill, the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and the Respect States Act, that would move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule II. Grassley believes that cannabis is illegal because it is dangerous, in a statement he said, "When someone is high, they cannot be as alert to dangers that are always around us, dangers such as a boiling pot on the stove, a burning candle, or even something as simple as an open window". He also said that "Illegal drug use costs society at least as much as" a number of social ills such as murder, rape, child abuse, organized crime, the manufacture of counterfeit money, and genocide.

In 2019, he was one of the 14 Republican senators to sign a letter from Marco Rubio that involved condemning the 'Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions' movement. In 2017, he co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act. According to the act, It is a federal crime for Americans to encourage or participate in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements in the West Bank if protesting actions by the Israeli government.

In 2018, he planned to create a “Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus.” His plan coincided with the 25th anniversary of the Whistleblower Protection Act, which he co-authored. “Whistleblower protections are only worth anything if they’re enforced,” Grassley stated. “Just because we’ve passed good laws does not mean we can stop paying attention to the issue. There must be vigilant oversight by Congress. The best protection for a whistleblower is a culture of understanding and respecting the right to blow the whistle.” He added that he hopes “This whistleblower caucus will send the message that Congress expects that kind of culture.”