'This is MAGA': Outrage as Joni Ernst turns 'we're all going to die' non-apology into a twofer

Just a day after Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa generated nationwide disgust by suggesting in a town hall event that deadly GOP cuts to Medicaid are not that bad because people "are all going to die" anyway, her trolling non-apology posted online over the weekend only made things worse for many critics as she joked about the Tooth Fairy and hinted that people concerned about ripping healthcare away from tens of millions of people—including children, the poor, and the elderly—are somehow not that bright.

The optics of Ernst's sarcastic video, which appeared to be filmed in a cemetery with grave markers in the background, did not go over well.

While Ernst—who is up for reelection in 2026—says at the outset that she is "sincerely" sorry for her remarks on Friday, it becomes clear the apology is nothing but a troll of her critics when she adds that she "assumed that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth."

"So I apologize," said Ernst. "And I'm really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the Tooth Fairy as well."

The legislation Republicans are now pushing through Congress, if signed into law, would result in devastating cuts to Medicaid that experts estimate would result in increased preventable deaths—all to pay for billions of dollars in additional tax giveaways for the nation's richest people and corporations.

New analysis released by the Center for American Progress in May show an estimated "6.9 million people losing coverage by 2034 as a result of congressional Republicans' proposed paperwork requirements would lead to more than 21,600 avoidable deaths nationally each year. This translates to lives lost in every congressional district with Medicaid expansion enrollees."

As columnist Mike Lofgren, a former Republican staffer in Congress, wrote for Common Dreams last month, it is not a stretch to say that the contemporary GOP shows by its policy agenda that it "wants you to die."

To make his argument, Logfren writes, "If someone commits a reckless act whose adverse consequences are clearly foreseeable, then for all practical purposes, that person willed the consequences. This principle—who wills the means wills the ends—is applicable in law, but should also be valid in everyday life. It should particularly apply to the behavior of public officials who wield power over the rest of us."

It was the point the audience member at the town hall Friday was clearly trying to make when she yelled, "People are going to die." What's striking is how explicit Ernst's disregard for that warning was in that moment and—perhaps more startling and concerning—in the days since.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) pushed back on Ernst's Friday comments by telling CNN in a weekend interview, "I think everybody in that audience knows that they're going to die. They would just rather die in old age at 85 or 90, instead of dying at 40."

Ernst's comment made headlines nationwide, including in the Des Moines Register, the largest paper in her home state of Iowa.

In a takedown of Ernst's scripted performance in Saturday's video, political podcaster Fred Wellman, part of the Meidas Touch media network, concluded that the entire episode not ony proves Ernst is emblematic of an increasingly heartless and cruel Republican Party—"this is MAGA," he said—but also that she is a very "s---- person" on an individual level:

"She thought it was so clever," said Wellman. "She owned them libs, didn't she?She's owning them libs. But guess what? She's up for reelection, folks. She's sure she's gonna win, because it's Iowa, what could go wrong?"

"Let's make sure it goes wrong," said Wellman.