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joni ernst
'Code for Massive Cuts': Audio Shows GOP Sen. Joni Ernst Telling Donors She Wants 'Changes' to Medicare, Medicaid
"Again, Joni Ernst has shown that she is willing to push our families into poverty with a smile. The programs she plans to cut are a lifeline for millions of Americans. She should be ashamed."
Feb 13, 2020
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa told donors at a fundraiser in Washington, D.C. last March that federal spending on non-discretionary programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security is "out of control" and will require "changes" in the future.
That's according to a 55-second audio clip published Wednesday by Iowa Starting Line. In the recording, Ernst is asked by an attendee whether she is on board with Sen. David Perdue's (R-Ga.) call for cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.
"I think we all are because we understand that our non-discretionary spending is growing like this," replied Ernst, who is up for reelection in 2020. "Everyone focuses on discretionary spending because that is what we can control in Congress. The rest is on autopilot and is out of control. We have to figure out ways to honor the commitments that have been made, but make changes for the future. How we do that, I don't know."
Progressive advocacy group Social Security Works tweeted that "changes" is "code for massive cuts."
\u201cIn a room of wealthy fundraisers, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are "out of control" and that she wants to "make changes for the future."\n\n"Changes" is code for MASSIVE CUTS! \n\n#IASen\u201d— Social Security Works (@Social Security Works) 1581617881
Kimberly Graham, one of five Democrats vying to unseat Ernst in November, tweeted Thursday that "we barely invest in the health and well-being of our people as it is, and Joni Ernst thinks even that is too much."
"Joni doesn't work for Iowans," added Graham. "Joni works for the wealthy donors that fill her campaign coffers."
The audio clip comes months after the Democratic super PAC American Bridge posted a video of Ernst telling a town hall audience in August that members of Congress should negotiate changes to Social Security "behind closed doors" to avoid scrutiny from advocacy groups and the press.
"The minute you say we need to address Social Security, the media is hammering you, the opposing party is hammering you--'there goes granny over a cliff,'" said Ernst, who has in the past expressed support for privatizing Social Security.
"There is a real issue out there," added the Republican senator, "and as long as we are being hammered as members of Congress for even saying we need to do something about it, you're not going to find people that are willing to step forward and do it."
Watch:
Eddie Mauro, another Democrat running for Ernst's Senate seat, said the Republican "should be ashamed" of her position on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security spending.
"Again, Joni Ernst has shown that she is willing to push our families into poverty with a smile," Mauro tweeted Wednesday. "The programs she plans to cut are a lifeline for millions of Americans."
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Sen. Joni Ernst Warns GOP Could Weaponize Impeachment 'Immediately' If Democrat Wins White House
"For all that talk about 'overturning the will of the voter,' Senate GOP seems pretty okay with impeaching a future president... as long as that president is a Democrat."
Feb 02, 2020
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst warned Sunday that the GOP could swiftly move to weaponize the impeachment process if a Democrat wins the presidency in 2020, proclaiming "this door of impeachable whatever has been opened."
Specifically invoking former Vice President Joe Biden, Ernst told Bloomberg News in an interview that "we can have a situation where if it should ever be President Biden, that immediately, people, right the day after he would be elected would be saying, 'Well, we're going to impeach him.'"
The Iowa Republican, who has said she plans to vote to acquit President Donald Trump this week, claimed Biden could be impeached "for being assigned to take on Ukrainian corruption yet turning a blind eye to Burisma because his son [Hunter Biden] was on the board making over a million dollars a year."
Critics said Ernst's comments, which came on the eve of the Iowa Democratic caucuses, lay bare the emptiness of GOP complaints that the impeachment of Trump represents an effort to overturn the will of voters.
"For all that talk about 'overturning the will of the voter,' Senate GOP seems pretty okay with impeaching a future president... as long as that president is a Democrat," tweeted Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), who endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic presidential primary.
"OK, so impeachment is only 'overturning the will of the voters' if a Republican is elected. Got it," wrote Indivisible co-founder Leah Greenberg.
\u201cWe\u2019re going to \u201cimmediately\u201d push to replace Joni Ernst: https://t.co/8tGbtLRVbc.\u201d— Indivisible Guide (@Indivisible Guide) 1580676205
In a separate interview Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union," Ernst defended Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his Democratic political rivals while conceding that perhaps "he could have done it through different channels."
Senate Republicans largely united late Friday in voting down a motion to allow witnesses to testify in Trump's impeachment trial, a move Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups decried as an "abhorrent dereliction of duty." Every other Senate impeachment trial in U.S. history has included witnesses, according to an analysis released last week by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
"This is a crisis of democracy," By the People executive director Alexandra Flores-Quilty said following the Friday vote.
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'Screaming the Quiet Part Into a Bullhorn': Sen. Joni Ernst Admits GOP Using Impeachment Trial to Damage Biden in 2020
"Trump is trying to use the trial to do what Ukraine wouldn't—destroy his political rivals."
Jan 27, 2020
After President Donald Trump's legal team on Monday completed the second day of their impeachment defense--which largely consisted of attacks on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter--Republican Sen. Joni Ernst told reporters that she is "really interested to see" how team Trump's performance at the Senate trial "informs and influences the Iowa caucus voters, those Democratic caucus-goers."
Ernst's remarks, which came just a week before the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses, were widely viewed as an open admission that Trump's attorneys and the Republican Party are using the Senate impeachment trial as an opportunity to damage Biden at the polls.
"This is saying the quiet part out loud," tweetedMSNBC correspondent Garrett Haake, a sentiment that was echoed by others.
"Here is Joni Ernst screaming the quiet part into a bullhorn," said Kaili Joy Gray, executive editor of The American Independent, in response to the Iowa Republican's comments.
\u201cERNST: "IA caucuses are this next Monday evening. And I'm really interested to see how this discussion today informs and influences the Iowa caucus voters, those Demcaucus goers. Will they be supporting VP Biden at this point?"\n\nH/T @JaxAlemany\u201d— Alan He (@Alan He) 1580170088
Ernst's comments run counter to the longstanding White House and Republican narrative that Trump's effort to pressure Ukraine to launch investigations--for which he was impeached by the House of Representatives last month--was a genuine attempt to root out corruption, not a politically motivated ploy to harm Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Like Ernst, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) also invoked the presidential election following hours of arguments by Trump's defense team, which includes Pam Bondi, Eric Herschmann, Alan Dershowitz, and Ken Starr.
"I was watching Elizabeth [Warren] and Bernie [Sanders] and Michael [Bennet] and Amy [Klobuchar] and they were really eyes wide open during that part of it," Barrasso told reporters, referring to Trump attorney Pam Bondi's presentation, which heavily focused on Biden an his son.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said as he watched "Bondi and the other Trump lawyers spend most of the day savaging the Bidens (as expected)... it become crystal clear to me: Trump is trying to use the trial to do what Ukraine wouldn't--destroy his political rivals."
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