Sen. Ernst's sarcasm won't help her keep her seat [View all]
By Patricia Lopez / Bloomberg Opinion
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst lobbed a verbal grenade into her town hall on Saturday with one heedless, heartless comment.
Confronted by an audience member who shouted that without Medicaid, “people will die,” the Republican replied, “Well, we all are going to die. For heaven’s sake, folks.”
That would once have been a career-ending gaffe for a senator seeking re-election, as Ernst will in 2026. But we’re in the MAGA era now. So instead of backpedaling, she followed up with a video of her strolling through what appears to be a graveyard, face full of faux concern, saying she had made “an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this Earth … So I apologize.” Then came the sarcastic kicker: “And I’m really, really glad I didn’t have to bring up the subject of the Tooth Fairy as well.”
The harsh comment can’t change the state’s harsh reality: Its economy has been slow to recover from the covid pandemic, in part due to an aging workforce and in part due to its shrinking agricultural sector. The state’s economy contracted last year, making it one of only two U.S. states to see declines in GDP in 2024.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-sen-ernsts-sarcasm-wont-help-her-keep-her-seat/
= new reply since forum marked as read