Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said, during a press call on Wednesday, that the people who broke into the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection should be prosecuted.

“People that break the law should be prosecuted. Pretty simple. And I hope you wouldn’t expect me to say anything else,” Grassley said. 

Grassley was responding to a question about the Republican National Committee’s censure of Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., in which the party called the events of Jan. 6, 2021 a case of “legitimate political discourse.” The phrase has conjured up controversy from outside and within the party.

Last week, the RNC voted to censure the two House Republicans for joining the Democrat-led panel investigating the events of the insurrection. On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized the national party and backed up the claim that Jan. 6th was a “violent insurrection.” He has been the highest ranking Republican official to do so. 

Grassley didn’t directly contradict the RNC’s stance, but he said he’d prefer that the Republican Party focus on issues they agree on, like challenging President Joe Biden’s administration and gaining a majority in Congress, rather than focussing on the events of Jan. 6.

“The party ought to stay focused on what Americans care about, what policies affect their families and what they can do to take back the congress this fall,” Grassley said. 

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has challenged the characterization of the party’s censure as condoning the Jan. 6 violence, saying that violence is not legitimate political discourse. The censure of Cheney and Kinzinger did not differentiate between nonviolent and violent actors at the insurrection.

“Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed a line,” she said in a statement to several media outlets. “They chose to join Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.”