Watch Sen. Grassley Almost Knock Over American Flags to Escape Press Questions on Manafort

CLIP: Sen. @ChuckGrassley exits news conference via door behind American flags.

Full news conference here: https://t.co/mdeAUFERPh pic.twitter.com/IHdgD7hXlT

— CSPAN (@cspan) October 30, 2017

“Anybody have any questions for Senator [Chuck] Grassley (R-IA), or anybody else here, on this topic?” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) at a Monday afternoon press conference with a number of his GOP colleagues.

The topic was supposed to be judicial confirmations. But hours after the indictment of President Donald Trump‘s former campaign chair Paul Manafort, Cornyn’s request was certain to be ignored. And indeed, the very first question was about Manafort.

Cornyn tried his best to deflect. But after a second Manafort query, Chuck Grassley was ready to throw in the towel. And he tried, stealthily, to exit the room.

Only, he knocked into several large American flags on his way out — nearly toppling them. This caused reporters to notice Grassley trying to run off like a bandit. They called after him, but he refused to turn around. The getaway car was apparently waiting.

Prior to the news conference, Grassley’s office released the following statement on the indictments:

As always, it’s important to let our legal system run its course. While we don’t have any more information regarding the current status of the special counsel’s investigation other than what has already been made public, it’s good to see the Justice Department taking seriously its responsibility to enforce the Foreign Agents Registration Act. I’ve been raising concerns about lackluster enforcement of this foreign influence disclosure law for years now, regardless of administration or political party. It should be enforced fairly and consistently, regardless of politics or any other factor. The dirty little secret is that lots of people across the political spectrum in Washington have skirted their FARA registration obligations for years with little to no accountability. I’ve been working on legislation to improve the Justice Department’s enforcement of FARA, and expect to introduce it very soon.

Watch above, via CSPAN.

[featured image via screengrab]

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Follow Joe DePaolo (@joe_depaolo) on Twitter