Run, Chuck, run! Sen. Grassley passes up Iowa Freedom Summit slot for the birds [corrected]

Brett T. | 9:36 PM on January 24, 2015

Editor’s note: We’ve learned that Sen. Grassley not only fed the birds, but was up with the birds to deliver a 10-minute address to the Freedom Summit early in the day. Video of Sen. Grassley’s remarks can be found on C-SPAN’s website. Twitchy regrets the error.

Saturday’s Iowa Freedom Summit managed to pack in a full day of speeches from potential 2016 Republican contenders, but despite the proximity, Sen. Chuck Grassley apparently turned down an invitation from Rep. Steve King to address the crowd. According to his tweet, Grassley instead spent the day filling multiple bird feeders, catching the summit on C-SPAN when time allowed.

Thx to Cong King for opportunity to address Freedom Summit. Except for having to fill up multiple bird feeders I watched summit on CSPAN

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) January 24, 2015

Grassley also took advantage of the relatively warm weather to run outdoors.

Such a cold winter in iowa this is first day I was able to run outside. Otherwise I worked out inside PTL for warmer weather

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) January 24, 2015

For those who don’t know, Sen. Grassley, 81, is a serious runner who puts in 3 miles a day, runs many local 5 and 10k races and celebrates his birthday each year by running more than 6 miles to the Capitol.