Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst is facing more backlash after issuing a cringeworthy non-apology on social media over remarks she made at a raucous town hall meeting Friday. When a voter expressed concern that Republicans’ Medicaid cuts would kill people, Ernst bleakly told the jeering crowd, “We’re all going to die.”
The criticism was fast and furious. The remark made national headlines, and widespread condemnation quickly followed. In trying to defend the callous comments, Ernst’s communications team quickly blamed the “hysteria that’s out there coming from the left.” Her office also accused Democrats of inciting fear among voters over the House’s proposed budget cuts.
Then on Saturday, a day after the town hall, the Iowa senator issued a weird, sarcastic apology from a cemetery.
“Hello, everyone. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize for a statement that I made yesterday at my town hall,” she began in the video she posted to Instagram.
“See, I was in the process of answering a question that had been asked by an audience member when a woman who was extremely distraught screamed out from the back corner of the auditorium, ‘People are going to die.’”
Ernst’s next remarks are a headscratcher. “I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this earth,” she said.
“So, I apologize, and I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well. But for those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my lord and savior, Jesus Christ,” she concluded.
Reaction to Ernst’s defensive and strange apology included Democratic Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, who said, “Maybe the only thing worse than lying about no one having their Medicaid cut is making fun of people dying from a bill.”
Instagram user Greg Valerie said, “Iowa, you are so much better than Ernst … Send her a clear message that she doesn’t speak for Iowa.”
“Telling people ‘we’re all going to die’ in response to Medicaid cuts & then doing a video quoting Jesus is stunning. Jesus healed the sick. He didn’t cut their care,” California congressman Ro Khanna said on the social media platform X.
And independent journalist Aaron Rupar, who has more than 971,000 followers on X, wrote: “Absolutely bonkers—Joni Ernst doubles down on her ‘we are all gonna die’ defense of Medicaid cuts while walking through a cemetery.”
House Republicans passed a budget measure last month, which is now under consideration in the Senate, that makes major cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The Trump administration and Republican lawmakers have said the reforms are supposed to prevent people who are in the United States illegally from receiving federal aid and to root out fraud.
While some estimates have put the number of undocumented migrants receiving federal aid at just under one and a half million people, the National Immigration Law Center says they’re generally ineligible for most federal public assistance, including food stamps, or SNAP, and Medicaid.
However, the Economic Policy Innovation Center, a conservative think tank, says 60 percent of non-citizen households use at least one welfare program. The center estimates these households are receiving more than $5,600 in annual federal benefits.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that almost 14 million Americans could lose their health insurance within 10 years under the House Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
