Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told a veteran female reporter that there aren’t more women on his committees because it’s “a lot of work.”

“It’s a lot of work,” Grassley told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “I mean don’t forget compared to a lot of committee meetings, we have an executive (session) for every Thursday … so it’s a lot of work.”

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“Maybe they don’t want to do it,” he added.

Why aren't more women senators on Judiciary Committee? Chairman @ChuckGrassley: "It’s a lot of work. I mean don’t forget compared to a lot of committee meetings, we have an executive (session) for every Thursday … so it’s a lot of work. Maybe they don’t want to do it" — Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) October 5, 2018

Grassley later walked the comments back in a follow-up interview with the Washington Post.

“We have a hard time getting men on the committee,” he said. “Do you know that we have got four people that are on the committee because the leader asked them to be there? Because they couldn’t fill the seats up.”

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“It’s just a lot of work whether you’re a man or a woman,” the chairman added.