Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) on Wednesday knocked Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) over the controversy surrounding her “we’re all going to die” remarks about Medicaid, and a sarcastic apology video she later released.
“I’m like, ‘Listen, ain’t nobody elect you to be anybody’s gravedigger. They elected you to do everything that you can to make sure that their lives are flourishing and getting better, and that they were living as long as they could,’” Crockett said in an interview on MSNBC.
Ernst has become a punching back for Democrats since telling constituents at a town hall that “We’re all going to die,” when they expressed concern that Medicaid cuts in the House-passed “big, beautiful bill” would cause unnecessary deaths.
Crockett, who has a growing reputation for pointed barbs on television, lamented the lack of compassion in politics and pointed to Ernst’s remarks as an example of that phenomenon.
“I will tell you that compassion is something that we are missing in Congress. Like, caring is something that we are missing in politics in general,” Crockett said.
“And that’s the only way you can justify a senator going out there and saying, ‘Well, everybody going to die,’ and then decide that you’re going to do your apology, not so much an apology, in what looked like a graveyard,” Crockett continued.
Ernst at a town hall meeting on Friday in Butler, Iowa, defended the spending reforms in a House-passed budget reconciliation package that are intended to stop people who crossed into the country illegally from receiving federal benefits.
Someone in the crowd tried to talk over Ernst, interrupting her answer about changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), yelling out that people are “going to die” because of the reforms. Ernst answered: “Well, we’re all going to die.”
Ernst seemed to double down on her quip, posting an Instagram video from what appeared to be a graveyard on Saturday, saying in a sarcastic tone, “I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize for a statement that I made yesterday at my town hall.”
“See I was in the process of answering a question that had been asked by an audience member, when a woman who was extremely distraught, screamed out from the back corner of the auditorium, people are going to die,” she continued.
“And 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, and I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.”