Ernst offers mock apology after Medicaid remarks at Parkersburg town hall

PARKERSBURG — Iowa Senator Joni Ernst offered a mock apology over the weekend after making remarks about Medicaid at a town hall meeting in Parkersburg on Friday.

Ernst at the town hall answered a question about proposed Medicaid cuts included in the “Big Beautiful” budget bill recently passed by House Republicans, with someone in the audience yelling “People are going to die,” with Ernst responding, “Well, we are all going to die, for heaven’s sakes.”

Over the weekend, Ernst released a video statement while it appeared that she was walking through a cemetery stating, “I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this earth, so I apologize.”

Democrats say Ernst’s remarks about Medicaid are callous and show she’s out of touch, but Ernst says the negative reaction is hysteria from the left, adding that Republicans intend to ensure those who are not eligible for Medicaid are kicked out of the program.