While many congressional Republicans have avoided holding town hall meetings with constituents in recent months, Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa agreed to attend an hourlong event early on Friday morning. She quickly offered the political world a timely reminder as to why so many GOP policymakers avoid such gatherings.
The issue at hand, of course, was the Republicans’ far-right megabill — the inaptly named “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — and when the discussion turned to health care policy, the senator tried to defend her party’s proposed Medicaid cuts, Ernst delivered a highly memorable line. One of her constituents said that people would die as a result of her party’s health care cuts, at which point the Iowa Republican said, “Well, we all are going to die.”
I assumed her office would quickly walk that back or claim that she was taken out of context. It actually did the opposite and leaned into the quote.
This did not go unnoticed. Not only did Democrats pounce on the GOP senator’s rather morbid defense of her party’s agenda, but local news outlets treated the senator’s quote as front-page news.
A day later, the Iowan — who, incidentally, will face voters again in next year’s midterm election cycle — decided to double down. The Washington Post reported:
While outrage at Ernst’s glib comment was immediate, on Saturday, the senator doubled down with a sarcastic response shared on Instagram. “I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth,” she said in a video filmed in what appeared to be a cemetery. “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.”
The video, which the senator filmed herself in what appeared to be a cemetery, was roughly a minute long.
Absolutely bonkers — Joni Ernst doubles down on her “we are all gonna die” defense of Medicaid cuts while walking through a cemetery
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-05-31T21:43:39.678Z
Ernst’s defense, in other words, is rooted in the idea that people aren’t immortal, and therefore, she was correct.
I’m not in a position to say with confidence whether the Iowa Republican is genuinely confused about why her “we all are going to die” rhetoric was a problem, or whether Ernst is simply doing an excellent imitation of someone who’s easily confused. Either way, it’s probably worth taking a moment to clarify matters.








