Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), when faced with her earlier criticism of then-President Barack Obama’s handling of the Ebola outbreak in 2014, said Sunday morning that President Donald Trump is “taking a step go ahead “in his response to the coronavirus pandemic that now killed 130,000 Americans.
During the 2014 midterm elections, Ernst joined a chorus of Republicans who exploited the Ebola outbreak in West Africa for political gain. Despite Obama deploying 3,000 service members to Africa to contain the virus, and only 11 confirmed cases and two recorded deaths in the United States, Ernst at the time accused the president of “failed leadership” in the disease.
Interviewing the Iowa Senator on CNN’s State of the unionHostess Dana Bash mentioned Ernst’s previous comments about Obama’s Ebola response and asked if he would use the same words to describe how Trump has handled COVID-19.
“Cases in his home state of Iowa have been steadily increasing over the past two weeks,” said Bash. “You criticized President Obama in 2014 for his handling of the Ebola outbreak, saying he showed ‘failed leadership.’ Only two people in the United States died of Ebola. Right now there are almost 130,000 Americans killed by coronavirus. So if the President Obama showed a failed leadership, do you think President Trump is showing a failed leadership now?
Ernst, who is currently facing a tough reelection run, largely avoided the CNN host’s question, rather than saying that everyone has a “responsibility to stop the spread” while minimizing the increase in cases of coronavirus in their state, noting that they have seen “an additional death” in Iowa in the past 24 hours.
“So, given the fact that one person died there, that’s only half the number that died during Ebola, which you said was a failed leadership,” Bash replied, returning to his original question. “Is the president now exhibiting failed leadership?”
However, the Republican lawmaker took the opportunity to praise the Trump administration for its response to the public health crisis, while apparently blaming Democrats for any deficits.
“No, I think the President is taking a step forward and we have Vice President Mike Pence who is leading the efforts of the coronavirus task force,” Ernst insisted. “And so, understanding where this came from, how the setback we got from the Democrats when the president tried to shut down travel from some of those hotspots, of course, was an extremely difficult environment to operate in.” “
Meanwhile, Ernst’s home state of Iowa reached its record high in new coronavirus cases on Saturday, reporting 568 new COVID-19 infections. The state also saw a positive test rate of 8.1 percent, slightly above the nation’s current average of 7.6 percent.
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