Back in the Senate on Thursday, Grassley — who had been sitting on the floor and reading through papers as Schumer lambasted the Iowa Republican — took Sen. Thom Tillis' (R-N.C.) place as presiding officer over the Senate. Then Grassley again irritated Democrats by denying requests from Leahy and Schumer to speak further, instead granting floor time to Tillis. The chairman also mentioned that Thursday's committee meeting had no legislation scheduled on its agenda -- prompting Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson to call that "a lie, pure and simple" since one of Grassley's own bills had been on a previous meeting advisory.
 
"Lying on the Senate floor, shutting down Senate debate and hiding the public – apparently that’s all in a day’s work for the new, hyper-partisan and blindly obedient Senator Grassley," Jentleson said. "It really was a remarkable day."
 
Tillis had come to Grassley's defense, while chastising Democrats for usurping floor time on the opioid legislation — a high priority for both parties — to talk about the Supreme Court.
 
“Over the next 24 hours, four more people are going to die of overdoses in North Carolina. I’m trying to figure out what I will say to that mother and father saying, ‘Gosh, things just got gummed up here because we have decided to connect two unrelated issues,’” Tillis said. “One has to do with the Supreme Court nomination and that’s very, very important. It’s critically important, I get that. But what’s more important than saving the lives of people that we know are going to die?”

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