Voters in Iowa laughed when Sen. Joni Ernst Joni Kay ErnstThanks to the farm lobby, the US is stuck with a broken ethanol policy US trade deficit rises on record imports from China Flake, GOP senators to meet with Trump on trade MORE (R-Iowa) told them that President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse Democrat slams Donald Trump Jr. for ‘serious case of amnesia’ after testimony Skier Lindsey Vonn: I don’t want to represent Trump at Olympics Poll: 4 in 10 Republicans think senior Trump advisers had improper dealings with Russia MORE was standing up for countries like Norway.
Constituents asked Ernst what she would do to stand up to Trump after his comments referring to Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as “shithole countries," KETV reported.
“He is standing up for a lot of the countries where we have seen some—” Ernst said before she was interrupted by a voter.
“Name a few, could you name a few?” one person called out.
“You bet. Norway is one of them,” Ernst replied before she was cut off by the room bursting into laughter.
“You know, you laugh but folks, who borders Norway? Russia,” the senator said.
Ernst also told the voters that she doesn't respond often to Trump's statements because she wants "to talk about the things I'm working on and that are important to Iowa."
Trump is facing backlash for calling some nations “shithole countries” during a meeting on immigration and suggesting that the U.S. bring in more immigrants from countries like Norway.
He has denied making the comments, but Sen. Dick Durbin Richard (Dick) Joseph DurbinDemocrats turn on Al Franken Minnesota's largest newspaper calls on Franken to resign Democratic senator predicts Franken will resign Thursday MORE (D-Ill.), who was present for the meeting, has confirmed the statements to reporters.
GOP Sens. David Perdue (Ga.) and Tom Cotton Tom CottonGOP and Dems bitterly divided by immigration Grassley offers DACA fix tied to tough enforcement measures Five things senators should ask Tom Cotton if he’s nominated to lead the CIA MORE (Ark.), who were also in the meeting, said Trump did not make the comments after initially saying they didn’t recall if he had made the remarks.
Trump also hosted Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg at the White House last week.
Ernst did have one final comment to the network on Trump.
"I wish he would put his phone down," Ernst said.
loveshercoffee on January 16th, 2018 at 15:40 UTC »
Holy shit. Iowan here. Red Oak is not only in an extremely rural and conservative part of the state, the whole damned area is populated by old families of Scandinavian decent. My parents and grandparent and great-grandparents are from a town only 20 miles from there. If Ernst is being laughed at publicly here, in her own home town, this spells trouble.
Of course, all of the sane Iowans have been laughing at her since before she got elected so, yeah.
HighOnGoofballs on January 16th, 2018 at 15:22 UTC »
Why does norway need standing up for again?
yeti77 on January 16th, 2018 at 14:29 UTC »
Grassley had this the other day too. This is why not doing town halls was always a bad idea. Eventually you'll have to campaign.