Republican Senator Joni Ernst’s meeting with her constituents went off the rails on Friday when she faced angry protests over Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
In one jaw-dropping moment, the senator gave a flippant response, further agitating the crowd when being pressed over the cuts to Medicaid and other benefits like food assistance.
While Ernst was talking about who was eligible for benefits, someone in the audience could be heard raising concerns that people would die.
“Well, we all are going to die, so for heaven’s sake,” Ernst responded with a smile.
A rumble went through the crowd. It was a standout moment as many constituents took issue with the bill passed in the House and now headed to the Senate for cutting Medicaid and other benefits.
The fiery town hall in rural Butler County, Iowa, is the latest in a series of Republican events where lawmakers have returned home from Washington to be lambasted by livid constituents.
In other vitriolic confrontations at the Iowa meeting, one angry attendee blasted the Trump administration’s actions as a “Nazi blitzkrieg” and another branded Ernst a “coward.”
The Congressional Budget Office estimates millions will lose Medicaid coverage, but Ernst denied the legislation cuts the low-income insurance program and insisted the bill would make it so people who are not eligible would not be receiving benefits.
The “big, beautiful bill” was the priority for many of the attendees who showed up early on a Friday to give the senator an earful, but it was not the only matter that got constituents going.
One man, a teacher who said he served in the Navy, told Ernst to her face that Trump is destroying the federal government and claimed the House and Senate had been “rendered useless.”
“You folks have let it happen. You sat back and done nothing,” he said as the crowd applauded. “The House is the best example. We’re still seeing on the Senate. It looks like there’s a little gumption to fight back against the new dictator. But this has been like a Nazi blitzkrieg and you folks have sat back and done nothing.”
He then blasted her for voting for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and accused her of being scared.
“Are you afraid of Trump, are you corrupt like Trump, or are you just at the point you don’t care anymore, and that’s why you don’t do anything?” he asked.
His question prompted a round of cheers and applause from the crowd.
“Obviously, I don’t agree because I don’t think our country is being destroyed,” Ernst responded as the crowd grumbled.
Another person shouted about squealing as Ernst talked about her focus on government spending. The senator fired back, saying: “I’m not squealing, ma’am.”
At another point, a constituent stood up to ask her about a provision of the House bill that would restrict the federal courts from enforcing contempt orders and warned about it unraveling the government’s system of checks and balances.
He asked her if she would pledge not to vote for the bill or any other that contains the ”poisonous provision.”
Ernst argued that while the House wrote one version of the bill, the Senate would have its own version of the legislation. She claimed that due to Senate rules, their reconciliation bill has to stick to mandatory spending.
“I don’t know anything about that provision that talks about mandatory spending or revenues, so a lot of what has been wrapped up into the House bill will be flushed out in what we call the Byrd bath in the Senate,” Ernst said.
However, her answer did not satisfy attendees in the auditorium who shouted out follow-up questions. Ernst responded that the provision would not be in the Senate bill.
As she tried to move on to the next question, disgruntled constituents loudly disapproved and said they didn’t trust it.
One woman could be clearly heard as she called the senator a “coward.”
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