(CNN) Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chamber's most senior Republican and a long-time defender of whistleblowers, rebuked President Donald Trump on Tuesday when he said that the individual behind a complaint at the center of House Democrats' impeachment inquiry "appears to have followed the whistleblower protection laws and ought to be heard out and protected."

Trump and his allies in recent days have repeatedly maligned the whistleblower's motives and pushed to reveal the individual's identity.

"Like every American, I deserve to meet my accuser, especially when this accuser, the so-called 'Whistleblower,' represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a totally inaccurate and fraudulent way," Trump said on Twitter over the weekend.

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump tweeted again about wanting to know the whistleblower's identity, asking, "Why aren't we entitled to interview & learn everything about the Whistleblower, and also the person who gave all of the false information to him."

Grassley did not explicitly mention Trump in his statement but the senator offered a clear denunciation of the approach the President has taken since the complaint came to light.

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