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You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Politics / Local Races Open Thread: Joni Ernst, the Gift That Keeps on Giving

Local Races Open Thread: Joni Ernst, the Gift That Keeps on Giving

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Local Races Open Thread: Joni Ernst, the Gift That Keeps on Giving

(John Deering via GoComics.com)

The Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee just posted this. Guessing this is a meme format that will be around for a while

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— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell.com) June 3, 2025 at 9:59 AM

Drew Magary, at Defector, is more direct – “Joni Ernst Is A Piece Of Shit”:

Here’s a story in two parts, both of which will be crushingly familiar to you. The main character of our tale is Iowa (uh oh) Senator Joni Ernst, who held a town hall in her home state this past Friday. Ernst’s constituents at that town hall were vocally angry about President Trump’s massive tax bill, which passed in the House a month ago and threatens to cut >half a trillion dollars in funding to Medicaid. People will die if this bill passes in Ernst’s chamber. When one audience member informed the Senator of this fact, she responded, with supreme Midwestern condescension, “Well, we’re all going to die.”

That’s the first part of our story. The second part is Ernst’s formal response to the heckling, which she recorded on her phone while walking around a graveyard…

“I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this earth,” Ernst said, her voice dripping with contempt. “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. For those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.”

This woman is a piece of shit. I’m not interested in any further political analysis, because none is required. I don’t need to label Ernst a threat to democracy. I don’t need to bust out an extended PowerPoint deck that assigns 12 Pinocchios to every lie she’s told. I don’t need to be like, This woman doesn’t represent the America I know! All of that parsing would only serve to dilute the only important point, which is that this woman, at the core of her very being, is a complete piece of shit.

But you already knew that. The story of a prominent Republican trolling their own voters and then deploying Jesus of Nazareth as their ideological meat shield—hasn’t that man been through enough already?—has been a familiar one to you and me for a decade-plus now. Joni Ernst is a piece of shit championing a piece-of-shit bill, all in service of President Piece of Shit. Meanwhile, POTUSPOS is holed up at his piece-of-shit mansion in his piece-of-shit adopted home state, eating a well-done shit sandwich while he exchanges catty texts with his Secretary of Shit. Later today, they’ll join the Vice President Shit For Brains for a call into Piece of Shit News to chat with host Shitana Poopolo. Then they’ll all gather in the Situation Toilet to approve Judge Gaping Asshole to the federal circuit before discussing Elon Musk’s Department of Shitting On Things, which that piece of shit abandoned so that he can go back to his day job of making piece-of-shit cars that burst into flames and piece-of-shit rockets that always blow up in mid-air.

These people are all pieces of shit. Worst of all, they are now legion, feeding off our collective misery the way a bacterium might feed off the nitrogen fumes given off by a freshly lain bolus. And for what? Money? Respect? Immortality? Don’t make me laugh. There’s no eternal and everlasting life for a piece of shit like you, Joni Ernst. You’re going to die too, you know. I hope it’s sooner rather than later, and I’ll be ready with my selfie cam when it does.

Adds my beloved Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire:

You may recall last Friday when the shebeen noted that its old friend, Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa and retired hog de-baller, got herself in a little fix. She answered a constituent’s question about the impact of the Medicaid cuts in the Big Plug Ugly Bill. First, she lied about its impact, and then she delivered an immortal line:

We all are going to die.

… Well, I happened to speak to J.H. Christ in his office at Lord and Savior LLC, and he suggested that Senator Ernst go to the Iowa State Fair in August and embrace a McCormick reaper, blade first.

Always wise to strike while the iron is hottest. Joni Ernst is under maximum scrutiny right now, and Scholten will be able to exploit that to the fullest (and raise a ton of $)

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— The Downballot (@the-downballot.com) June 2, 2025 at 4:01 PM

Reader Interactions

99Comments

  6. 6.

    Nukular Biskits

    LOLOLOL!

    … Well, I happened to speak to J.H. Christ in his office at Lord and Savior LLC, and he suggested that Senator Ernst go to the Iowa State Fair in August and embrace a McCormick reaper, blade first.

  7. 7.

    dnfree

    @suzanne: ​
      First and most important, Karine Jean-Pierre has a book to sell. She’s going to tell us all to be like her and become independents. And to sell the book, she’s hinting that the three weeks when Democrats threw Biden under the bus are what caused her to become an independent. YUK. I used to like her when I saw her on PBS, but over her time as Biden spokesperson I did think she became progressively less effective.

  8. 8.

    Spanky

    @suzanne: Apparently she got her knickers in a twist – as did I and many here – at how “the Democrats” forced Biden out of the race. Her response ain’t what I’d call “reasoned”, but ya know, others may disagree

    ETA, of course, her reasoning may be more along the lines that dnfree mentioned right above.

  12. 12.

    Chetan Murthy

    @dnfree: Like all -elites-, she seems to not have checked the back of her hand, or the gender of her partner.  Somehow she thinks that she’ll be spared, or be able to escape Teh Fash [sic].  What a maroon.

  13. 13.

    Jackie

    The woman who shouted at Ernst:

    India May, a 33-year-old Democrat from Charles City, is running for the Iowa House after sparking a viral moment at U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst’s town hall.

    Crap. The above was supposed to be a link. From the Des Moines Register

  14. 14.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Spanky: yeah, I’ll disagree with the performative “I’m an independent”. I’m sure they exist but I don’t know one registered independent that doesn’t vote 100% for the party they “left”.

  15. 15.

    Jerszy

    “People who don’t realize that life is finite are as loony as people who believe in the Tooth Fairy. OTOH, if you want *eternal* life, you should believe in a divine spirit born to God and a human virgin, like I do.”

  16. 16.

    Princess

    We’re in a weird world when Karine Jean-Pierre joins the grifting quislings and David Brooks is urging mass resistance against Trump. I said there would be a massive realignment after the election no matter who won, but I didn’t expect this.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    When I’m the last person left in the party, I’ll finally get to be the nominee.

  18. 18.

    Elizabelle

    @Princess:  Do not follow Bobo Brooks, so that is welcome news.

    Karine can DIAF.  She has to know that her book will be used as a weapon by those who want to denigrate Democrats.

    Don’t let the door ….

  20. 20.

    Jeffro

    @Princess:We’re in a weird world when Karine Jean-Pierre joins the grifting quislings and David Brooks is urging mass resistance against Trump.

    The “Am I High?  I’m High, Aren’t I?” Years.

  21. 21.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the Tooth Fairy as well

    Oh yes, Senator Ernst, the Tooth Fairy, I mean were to these people get these ideas of an some wizard who survives his own death, and flies up into the sky?

  22. 22.

    Jeffro

    @Jerszy: “People who don’t realize that life is finite are as loony as people who believe in the Tooth Fairy. OTOH, if you want *eternal* life, you should believe in a divine spirit born to God and a human virgin, like I do.”

    RIGHT??!?

    when it comes to this subject, George Carlin said it second-best: “I really tried to believe [in god], but I gotta tell you, the longer you live, the more you look around, the more you realize…something is F–KED UP. Something is WRONG here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is NOT good work. If this is the best god can do, I am NOT impressed. Results like these do not belong on the resume of a supreme being. This is the kind of shit you’d expect from an office temp with a bad attitude. And just between you and me, in any decently run universe, this guy would have been out on his all-powerful-ass a long time ago.”

    Sam Kinison said it best, though: “aaooo AOOOOOOOAOOOOHHHH!”

  27. 27.

    Danielx

    Yes, everybody is going to die. But Joni Ernst is not going to die from lack of medical care, since she has lifetime gilt edged insurance paid on the taxpayers’ dime.

    Bless her heart.

  30. 30.

    NotMax

    @Jeffro

    “What baffles me is the comfort people find in the idea that somebody dealt this mess. Blind and meaningless chance seems to me so much more congenial – or at least less horrible. Prove to me that there is a God and I will really begin to despair.”
    – Peter De Vries, Blood of the Lamb
    .

  31. 31.

    zhena gogolia

    I wonder about how quickly the attacks in this thread got deflected from Joni Ernst to Karine Jean-Pierre.

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    @zhena gogolia:  Was thinking about that.

    Joni Ernst is a POS, so no surprises except how far she will fall.

    Expected more of Karine Jean-Pierre, and being betrayed is far worse than the usual doubling down on stupid by an awful person.

  33. 33.

    narya

    Okay, completely off topic: a friend sent me a t-shirt that says “I miss Nixon.” My only fear is that when I wear it, my dad–a long-time Nixon-hater–will come back to haunt me.

  34. 34.

    Princess

    @zhena gogolia: I’ll bite. Here’s one for Ernst;

    Ernst could have stopped Hegseth’s nomination.  She chose not to, and yet she knows exactly what he is. Those who know how rotten someone or something is and choose to go along with it are the very worst, worse even than the true believers, in my view.

  35. 35.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @narya: I bet his shade would look at the Trump administrations, shake his head, and say, “me too, kid. Me too.”

  36. 36.

    TONYG

    A lovely woman.  The best part of her non-apology was “I encourage you to embrace my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.”.  Now look.  Not all evil people go around bragging about their Christianity, and not all self-proclaimed “Christians” are evil people.  But, damn, there is a lot of overlap between those two categories.

  38. 38.

    NaijaGal

    Joni Ernst is a horrible monster voted in by people who deserve better but chose her anyway.

    Last year, I said I’d help Kamala win and then after she won, I planned to become an Independent because I really didn’t approve of the way Democrats treated Joe Biden and the way Democrats rarely stand up with conviction for their own.  Well, Kamala lost and I’m still a Democrat.  Even as an Independent I would most likely have voted for Democrats (just skipped out on primary voting and party-related stuff). I haven’t read the whole thread about Karine Jean-Pierre but I remember what I had planned to do last year and I’m not going to judge unless she starts spouting Republican talking points. Being taken for granted by your party is not a good feeling.

  39. 39.

    TONYG

    @narya: What’s remarkable is how much better than Trump were the horrible presidents of earlier in my lifetime (Nixon, Reagan, the Bushes).

  41. 41.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @NaijaGal:

    Being taken for granted by your party is not a good feeling.

    Yup. Just ask many black voters, union voters, teacher voters, etc.

  42. 42.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Elizabelle: That’s the same logic as protesting against Dems but not the GOP one Gaza, student loans, or any left of center priority.  Just because they are irredeemably awful they get a free pass?  Nah.

  43. 43.

    suzanne

    @zhena gogolia: Think it’s more about Joni Ernst’s comments being a few days old, no? She’s terrible and I’m thrilled she has a challenger. I’d rather she get a two-by-four to the head, but we take what we can get.

  44. 44.

    Jackie

    @narya: HA!

    a friend sent me a t-shirt that says “I miss Nixon.” My only fear is that when I wear it, my dad–a long-time Nixon-hater–will come back to haunt me.

    My dad hated Nixon, too. Buuut he lived to see FFOTUS elected his first term and hated him with a passion, too. Dad would “get” the t-shirt. Every time I took dad to the cemetery to place flowers at mom’s niche, he played a game of looking around. My role was to ask dad what he was looking for. His reply was he was looking for Trump’s grave so he could piss on it. Dad was 97 when Trump was elected, so we were able to play the game for 2 1/2 yrs before he passed.

  45. 45.

    Chief Oshkosh

    “We are all going to die!” – Republicans

    “Come with us if you want to live!” Democrats

    Bumper sticker? t-shirt?

  46. 46.

    dnfree

    @narya: ​
      My dad (now deceased) always believed that Nixon had been framed by the media. (He was ahead of his time.)
    Remember the t-shirts of (I think) the 1980s sometime? “Nixon for President. He’s tanned, he’s rested, he’s ready.”

  47. 47.

    TONYG

    @NaijaGal: It seems like Jean-Pierre is yet another former member of the Biden Administration who is trying to cash in on the “Good Heavens, Joe Biden is old” bandwagon.  Exactly how somebody can observe the past ten years of Trump’s “career” as a political figure and still think that Joe Biden’s age is an important issue, I do not understand.  But, then, I’m not a soul-less social climber in Washington, DC.

  48. 48.

    Elizabelle

    @Omnes Omnibus:  Agreed.  But it exactly the dynamic we see, over and over again.

    From our esteemed media to our self-proclaimed allies.

    All of this just makes me watch the Big Bear eaglets with that much more enthusiasm.  The natural sounds are soothing, in these ugly and unsettling times.

  50. 50.

    Elizabelle

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    “We are all going to die!” – Republicans

    “Come with us if you want to live!” Democrats

    I like that.  Who wants to be the hysteric shrieking on a sinking ship? Courage, people.

  51. 51.

    TONYG

    @Jackie: I was a self-proclaimed “rebellious” Boomer teenager during the Nixon years.  My father and I didn’t agree on a lot — but we agreed that we both hated Nixon.  Likewise during the Reagan years.

  55. 55.

    cmorenc

    Someone should have asked Ernst what the tooth fairy has to do with millions of people losing their health care, with “what would jesus do” about providing health care for people, given the example of loaves and fishes.

  57. 57.

    Elizabelle

    @NaijaGal:  I hear you, but I don’t really see where splintering the Democratic party — because we are still in a two-party system — gets us.

    We would be better served in a parliamentary system, it seems, when one party (clue:  the GOP) goes rogue and in favor of corruption and illegal behavior.

    2024 was actually a fairly narrow loss.  I do not see why we need to flay the Democrats, or draw and quarter them.  But it’s a profit center, it would seem.

    And do not let the American voters off the hook.  I hope a lot of them get what they voted for.  Good and hard.  Applies to the cynical and apathetic too.

  59. 59.

    sab

    @Spanky: “Nickers in a twist.” A lot of people are still angry about what was done to Biden. Best president of our lifetime for three years, then kicked to the curb because he’s old, even though he won the primary (our side had an actual contested primary, unlike rhe Republicans.)

    Thanks for showing respect for our feelings.  Jean-Pierre actually worked with the man closely on a daily basis and knows better than most what shape he was in. And he was pushed out by the Democratic parties elderly leadership, nobody else.

    You got what you wanted last summer. Perhaps be a bit more gracious in your win.

  63. 63.

    NaijaGal

    @TONYG: Really? “…She takes us through the three weeks that led to Biden’s abandoning his bid for a second term and the betrayal by the Democratic Party that led to his decision…” doesn’t sound like someone who’s joining the “Joe Biden is old” bandwagon. Betrayal being the key word that pops out for me.

    I think disappointment can make us lose sight of what the real problem is and who represents the real opposition/threat to multiracial democracy in the US. I think she’ll still be voting for Democrats, just disengaged from the party. I can understand that to an extent.  It doesn’t have to make sense to everyone and no, I don’t think she’s a grifter at this point in time. Let’s see what her next moves are. Then I’ll decide whether I have to eat my words.

  69. 69.

    Gin & Tonic

    @narya: Nixon resigned on my father’s 60th birthday. He (my father) was a man of few external emotions, but he smiled that day.

  73. 73.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @NaijaGal: I watched her get disrespected in her role as Press Secretary, and I know from personal experience how grating that is… I know many were quick to hate Nancy SMASH, but I still think both she and Karine have earned some “benefit of the doubt.”

    We are beset on all sides by the machinations of wicked men; the most effective of which has been to make us knife our own in pursuit of perfection.

    ”Perfection only exists in the mind of God.”

  76. 76.

    zhena gogolia

    @TONYG: She makes me ashamed to be a Christian.

    Please know that this is not how we talk in my church.

  79. 79.

    Jackie

    @cmorenc: She was talking about dental care, of course! Between fluoride in city water under RFK Jr’s microscope and lack of dental insurance… there’ll be more cavity ridden teeth under pillows than ever before!

  80. 80.

    NaijaGal

    @Princess: Power for power’s sake. No other consideration.  Yet voters flock to people like her and she may get re-elected after stripping some of her constituents of their medicaid benefits and causing some rural hospital closures. Why?

  83. 83.

    Steve LaBonne

    @NaijaGal: Professor Bigfoot has explained it repeatedly. Too many white people will cut their own throats before they will tolerate Black people having any power. And they see Democrats as the party of Black people.

  85. 85.

    NaijaGal

    @Professor Bigfoot: Benefit of the doubt. You got to the root of what was bothering me about the quick pile on. Some people never seem to get the benefit of the doubt. Others instantly do/ are given multiple opportunities to show their bona fides.

  86. 86.

    chemiclord

    @Elizabelle: That’s really at the core of most (if not all) of the inter-coalition sniping.

    We all know the Republicans are shitty.  There’s no point screaming at them because they won’t listen, and possibly even revel in it.  But we expect better of [x], and if we are loud enough, they might even change to our way of thinking!

  88. 88.

    japa21

    @NaijaGal: ​
     
    It just amazed me that as soon as the first blurb came out, so many people must have read the book that hasn’t been released yet. At least from the way they reacted, it seemed like they must have read it.

  91. 91.

    Citizen Alan

    @TONYG: I would give anything to meet Jodi Ernst so I could look her straight in the eye and say “When you meet Jesus on Judgment Day, he will tell you to your face that he never knew you and to depart. And then the Devil will drag you down to the Hell that you deserve. Forever.”

    When I was a young man, I went through a phase of doubting the existence of Hell because no loving God could ever subject anyone to it no matter what they did. But I’m older now, and I understand better what true evil is. And I cling to the belief that Hell is real because there are people in this world so vile and inhuman (and yes, unChristian) that they truly deserve infinite torment.

  92. 92.

    narya

    @Professor Bigfoot: oh, he lived through the first round, and I’m really not sure…he HAAAATED Nixon. He hated this guy too—I’m from NJ do we knew about this grifting fool—but hooboy. I remember watching the Watergate hearings.

  96. 96.

    Paul in KY

    @narya: Pres. Nixon would be very much better than the craziness we suffer under now. Batshit McChimpy too. Very depressing typing that.

  99. 99.

    Paul in KY

    @sab: After that debate, there was just no way forward with Pres. Biden. I love Joe, but he should have come to realization that he had physically slipped too much and dropped out much sooner. All hindsight, alas.

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