IA-Sen: “Joni Ernst (R) just said the quiet part out loud about the Senate impeachment trial”
The stupid, it hurts! Chris Cillizza at CNN nails it:
Sometimes politicians can't help themselves. They get careless. They say stuff they shouldn't say. They tell the truth that they have been trying to disguise.
So it went for Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst on Monday night. Following an afternoon at the Senate impeachment trial in which President Donald Trump's legal team made the case — without any established factual basis — that former Vice President Joe Biden had acted inappropriately in 2016 when he called for the resignation of the top prosecutor in Ukraine, Ernst told reporters this:“Iowa 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 Democratic caucus goers. Will they be supporting VP Biden at this point?”
Whoops!Remember that Republicans — including Ernst — have been arguing for months and months that Trump's effort to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to look into the activities of Biden and his son, Hunter, in Ukraine had nothing to do with the fact that the former vice president was a) running for the 2020 Democratic nomination and b) was a front-running candidate to be the nominee. Trump's interest was solely in rooting out corruption! This wasn't about Biden at all!
And Joe Biden rightfully went after Ernst on this:
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Monday evening said Sen. Joni Ernst had “spilled the beans” after the Iowa Republican gleefully suggested that the Senate impeachment debate surrounding the former vice president could hinder his performance in her state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses next week.
“Iowa caucus-goers take note,” Biden tweeted. “Joni Ernst just spilled the beans. She and Donald Trump are scared to death I’ll be the nominee. On Feb. 3rd, let’s make their day.”
During its second day of oral arguments in the impeachment trial Monday, President Donald Trump’s legal defense team argued that Biden, not the president, should be investigated for corruption or abuse of power for seeking the dismissal of Ukraine’s former prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, in 2016 — all while Biden’s son Hunter sat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma.
And Ernst top opponent, Theresa Greenfield (D. IA), didn’t waste time slamming Ernst:
And Charlies P. Pierce at Esquire made this observation:
Pro Tip: if you spill the beans into a large puddle of malarkey, you will have to spend days cleaning it up.
Even more remarkable than Ernst’s blundering into her own left-hook, Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming took it upon himself to read some minds.
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 [Bondi’s routine].
Turns out that these people should leave the gaslighting to the experts in St. Petersburg because, frankly, they’re better at it.
Let’s take out Ernst and flip the U.S. Senate blue. Click here to donate and get involved with Greenfield’s campaign.
