Just a day after Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa generated nationwide disgust by suggesting in a town hall event that deadly GOP cuts to Medicaid are not that bad because people “are all going to die” anyway, her trolling non-apology posted online over the weekend only made things worse for many critics as she joked about the Tooth Fairy and hinted that people concerned about ripping healthcare away from tens of millions of people—including children, the poor, and the elderly—are somehow not that bright.
The optics of Ernst’s sarcastic video, which appeared to be filmed in a cemetery with grave markers in the background, did not go over well.
https://X.com/keithedwards/status/1928916957278908823
While Ernst—who is up for reelection in 2026—says at the outset that she is “sincerely” sorry for her remarks on Friday, it becomes clear the apology is nothing but a troll of her critics when she adds that she “assumed that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth.”
“So I apologize,” said Ernst. “And I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the Tooth Fairy as well.”
