Iowa State students and community members asked U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) about his stance on the withdrawal from Afghanistan and his thoughts on the infrastructure bill at the Memorial Union Thursday. 

The student organization Turning Point USA hosted the Q&A. According to the Iowa State Student Organization website, Turning Point USA is a non-profit, non-partisan political group that discusses issues at weekly meetings.

Grassley said he was pleased with the meeting, saying that he was asked very topical questions. 

Some of the questions asked to Grassley were about his thoughts on the supply chain crisis, his stance on defunding the police and the yield of his crops.

Regarding the infrastructure bill, one student had asked about the chances of it getting passed, to which Grassley said he does not think it will happen without communication from both sides.

During the discussion, Grassley said he only considers himself a trustee in a minority of the bills he votes on. There are also issues he has based his platform on since he was elected in the 80s. Being pro-life is one of them.

When Grassley was asked how his pro-life stance is to manifest in a bipartisan nature, he said, “It ignores bipartisanship entirely. This would fall into the category of people know what I’ve done, I’ve campaigned on it and they should expect me to vote that way, or they wouldn’t have elected me.”

Joey Caputo, a freshman that is currently an open-option major, said Grassley was a very relatable person.

“This was my first time meeting a sitting senator in person, and he was a personable man,” said Caputo. “You could connect with him; he was down to earth. He didn’t seem like he was very high above like some media outlets and other people make [politicians] seem, and he really seemed to care about his constituents.”

President of Turning Point USA Armaan “Guppy” Gupta, a freshman majoring in pre-business, said the meeting went well. His goal is to get more people engaged with politics and politicians alike, saying that he hopes to get more politicians from both parties to interact with his group.

“Have more discussions with people you don’t agree with,” said Gupta.

The meeting concluded with a game of Kahoot, where the winner was awarded free tickets to any Turning Point USA event of their choosing.