(Radio Iowa) — A few hours after his cordial reception at SWIPCO in Atlantic, Monday, Senator Chuck Grassley’s town hall meeting in Osceola late Monday afternoon was a prime example of the country’s partisan divide. Grassley was asked about tariffs, taxes, criminal justice reform and monopolies, but Grassley’s role in confirming President Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee was the main flash point. The meeting was the final stop in Grassley’s “hold-an-event-in-each-Iowa-county” tour for 2018. He told reporters most didn’t have the same kind of verbal fireworks.

“Obviously, this isn’t a very typical meeting compared to the meetings i have, even other open town meetings. Maybe it was because it was a small room,” Grassley says. “…Most of them, people just want to discuss things.” Grassley, a witness to other moments of national upheaval, predicted this fevered debate will fade — at some point. “Everything heals with time,” Grassley told reporters. “Even death heals with time.”

Grassley had a “blizzard” at Dairy Queen afterwards to mark his 38th consecutive year of completing a “full Grassley.” A tour the involves a stop in each of Iowa’s 99 counties has become known in political circles as the “full Grassley.”