At a town hall event in Iowa on Friday, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst was asked about planned Medicaid cuts in the “big beautiful” budget bill now in front of the Senate.
As Ernst started to answer, a woman in the crowd interrupted, yelling: “People are going to die!”
Ernst, clearly annoyed, responded: “Well, we’re all going to die.”
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Which, true! But it’s also not something a senator should say to a constituent. It’s glib and dismissive. It’s beneath the office—way beneath it.
The exchange went viral on social media. The original tweet has been viewed more than 10 million times. And Ernst woke up Saturday morning to a front page spread in The Des Moines Register, as well as media coverage across the U.S.
Not great! Especially when you are asking voters for another term in the Senate next year. So on Saturday, Ernst responded. But in a video that at first purported to be offering a sincere apology, it soon became clear she was trolling the libs—or something?
Who knew that telling people a fact (yes, we are all going to die) would be such a big deal, Ernst said.
“I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well,” she added.
Look. I am not the guy who is going to dunk on politicians every time they make a mistake. But Ernst’s decision to make that Saturday video really bothered me—and it’s part of a broader pattern in the Trump-influenced world of American politics.
Five or ten years ago, Ernst would have said nothing after the “well, we’re all going to die” comment—and tried to let the gaffe die its own quick, quiet death, basically. Or she would have put out a statement with a real apology.
But the lesson politicians—especially Republican ones—have learned from the past decade of Trump dominance is to never apologize.
Because apologizing is weak. And “those people”—liberals and the media—don’t deserve your apology anyway. They are all bad-faith actors, pretending they are offended by your comments to score political points.
The best way to handle stuff like this is to double down. It’s a deeply nihilistic view of politics—and human nature.
Unfortunately, it will probably work. Because we can’t simply all agree that Ernst shouldn’t have been glib, and shouldn’t have let her anger get the better of her, right? This will turn into a conversation about the left being out to get her, or something that will rally the MAGA base behind her.
That is dumb. And moves us even further away from the possibility of politics that could make us proud again.
