Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa., says he is "kind of nonchalant" about defending Attorney General Jeff Sessions if President Donald Trump wants to replace him.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said he does not feel the same as last year, when he warned he would not want to consider confirming a replacement.
"The answer that I gave a year ago was directed directly at the president that I honestly didn't have time to consider anything else," Grassley said. "It was also somewhat of a defense of Sessions.
"Now, I'm kind of nonchalant about defending Sessions. I like him very much personally, and I want him to be a good attorney general, but the president's got a right to have somebody in there he wanted."
And, he added, there is plenty of time on the Senate calendar for the confirmation.
"I'm not just saying that not just about Sessions, I got time [for anything]," he told the news outlet.
Grassley made similar statements in August, when he told Bloomberg news: "I do have time for hearings on nominees that the president might send up here that I didn't have last year."
Sessions and Grassley publicly clashed over the senator's efforts to pass criminal justice reform that is opposed by the attorney general. A vote on the legislation has been postponed until after the Nov. 6 midterm elections.
However, Grassley got a boost earlier this month when Trump reportedly said he would overrule Sessions on prison overhaul.
"We haven't had a sit down conversation about reform," Grassley told the Washington Examiner. "But we've got the president saying he doesn't care what Sessions thinks about criminal justice reform."
"If the president wants to be for it, he's going to run over him," Grassley said.
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