The hosts of “The View” were pretty disgusted with Iowa senator Joni Ernst on Monday morning, after the politician defended the number of people that could die by being forcibly taken off Medicaid by saying “we’re all going to die.” But, at least one of the ABC hosts found a bright spot to that town hall.
Ernst made the comment to constituents last week, and following the outrage it prompted, doubled down by posting a video of her taking a walk through a cemetery, mocking the anger voters were feeling.
“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.”
After watching both clips of Ernst, “The View” moderator Whoopi Goldberg offered some blunt advice: “Rethink bringing her back if she’s representing you.”
Indeed, Ernst is up for reelection in 2026, and Whoopi’s co-hosts agreed with that advice. For Sara Haines, the most shocking aspect of both Ernst’s original comment and the follow-up video was the lack of empathy.
“The callousness in the insult and how she handled it, was like, it already hurt enough to hear the message to kind of crap on everyone in the room,” she said. “And then to follow up and do a double dose of it is stupidity.”
Host Alyssa Farah Griffin agreed on the stupidity, wondering why Ernst would be employing a tactic that Donald Trump typically uses, when that tactic has already proven not to work for people who are not Trump himself. Farah Griffin was also quick to point out that Ernst likely does not have the support of Trump anymore.
“She got on the wrong side of Donald Trump because she was one of the people opposing Pete Hegseth,” Farah Griffin explained. “She ultimately ended up supporting him, but MAGA world is trying. They’re coming for her. They’re trying to take her out of office.”
“So she’s going back to the Donald Trump playbook of double down, never admit fault with the second video,” she continued. “The problem is, 10 years into the Trump era, it works for Trump a lot of the times. It never works for other people when they try to do it. It comes off heartless, like a lack of empathy, she should fire whoever advised her.”
All that said, host Ana Navarro actually applauded Ernst for at least one aspect of this town hall.
“I give her at least some kudos, in the sense that she actually had a town hall,” Navarro said. “Because so many of these Republicans in the Senate and in Congress are running scared and don’t have the guts to face their constituents.”
You can watch the full discussion from “The View” in the video above.
