Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton did 22 push-ups in support of veterans during a Tuesday GOP event in Iowa.
“We got a tragedy among our veterans… On average, 22 veterans commit suicide everyday… You do 22 push-ups for every one of the veterans that died,” Grassley explained a routine he started observing during his 2016 campaign.
????Update from Sioux Center!
@ChuckGrassley & @TomCottonAR doing 22 push ups in front of 200 passionate Iowans. Wow! pic.twitter.com/1NQL4ybs1C
— Jeff Kaufmann (@kaufmannGOP) June 30, 2021
“I’m 87, so you gotta give me a little leeway,” the Iowa senator warned Cotton, 44, before the start of the contest.
“What he actually said is that he’d have to do one less than I, because he’s so old that if he tied me, it’d be like beating me. Thank you for taking it easy on me,” Cotton joked, getting prepared for the exercise. (RELATED: Top Navy Officer Dodges Tom Cotton Question On Whether Capitalism Is Racist)
A crowd of about 200 Iowans attending the fundraiser burst into applause and cheering, as Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, who was a third panelist at the event, counted to 22.
The Tuesday fundraiser was intended as a forum for the three senators to discuss key issues and brief their constituents on the current state of affairs in Congress, according to KGAN.
Giving a speech on the podium, Cotton heavily criticized critical race theory (CRT).
“If we let the left indoctrinate an entire generation of our kids to hate America, what will we have gained?” Cotton asked the audience, Iowa Capital Dispatch reported.