IOWA CAUCUSES

Chuck Grassley echoes Donald Trump at Trump rally

Jason Noble
jnoble2@dmreg.com

PELLA, Ia. – Don’t call it an endorsement, but U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley stood behind a lectern emblazoned with Donald Trump’s campaign logo and spoke of making America great again during a rally here Saturday.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump shakes hands with Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) before speaking to a gathering of students and supporters at Central College on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in Pella, Iowa.

“We’ve had this trend going this way, away from the basic principles that established our government,” Grassley told the crowd at a Trump rally nine days before the Iowa caucuses. “And so we have an opportunity, once again, to make America great again.”

That line echoed the slogan for Trump’s front-running presidential campaign – the one emblazoned on his campaign T-shirts and those famous ball caps.

But aides to the six-term senator – who is gearing up a campaign for a seventh term next November – stressed that it was not an endorsement of Trump, and noted that Grassley has offered to appear with all the GOP candidates in the final week of the caucus campaign.

“Sen. Grassley is not endorsing,” his chief of staff, Jill Kozeny, said in an email on Saturday. “He's been attending events for and with Republican presidential candidates in Iowa since last summer, whenever he's been invited and it can be scheduled, and he'll be on the campaign trail with others, too, through next weekend.”

Several other campaigns – including those of candidates Ben Carson, Chris Christie and Rand Paul – confirmed they had received offers in recent days to appear with Grassley.

There was a long break after Grassley’s speech before Trump appeared, but when he did he had kind words for the senator and invited him back on stage to shake hands.

“This is a great guy,” Trump said of Grassley. “This is a great guy, and respected by everybody.”

-- Jennifer Jacobs contributed to this report