Sen. Joni Ernst reaffirmed her support for the NRA on a CBS news program on Sunday, while claiming she is not beholden to the NRA for the almost record-setting amount of money it has spent supporting her since 2014.
The Republican from Red Oak was on Face the Nation to discuss the impact of the Trump administration’s tariff policy on the economy of Iowa, but host Margaret Brennan began Ernst’s segment with a question inspired by Saturday’s March for Our Lives rally in Washington D.C.
“I want to ask you, because you are one of the top 10 recipients of NRA funding in the Senate, your image was being held up by some of those protesters at the rally here in Washington yesterday,” Brennan said. “I wonder how you are responding to these young activists who are calling for gun control.”
It wasn’t just in Washington D.C. that marchers called out Ernst. Ernst’s relationship with the NRA was loudly criticized at the Iowa City March for Our Lives as well, just as it has been at earlier local walk-outs and marches following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
According to The New York Times, the NRA has spent $3,124,273 to support Ernst, in the form of direct contributions, independent expenditures to support her as a candidate and money spent attacking rival candidates in her 2014 campaign for the U.S. Senate. Ernst was first elected to the Senate in 2014, following the retirement of Tom Harkin, a Democrat who had served in the Senate since 1985. Harkin had a rating of “F” from the NRA, Ernst has an “A.”
Ernst started her reply to Brennan by pointing out that “Many outside organizations will run advertisements,” and that as a candidate, the law prevents her from asking them to stop doing so.
Brennan asked if Ernst was attempting to distance herself from the NRA.
“I am — no, I am not separating myself from the NRA,” Ernst replied.
The senator went on to explain,
I’m a supporter of our Bill of Rights. We have many rights that need to be upheld in the United States. And I would say that I have been a Second Amendment supporter my lifetime.
I was a member of the NRA long before the NRA knew of Joni Ernst, private citizen in Iowa.
Asked what she would say to those who marched in Washington D.C., Ernst replied, “I would say, I — I appreciate the fact that they have the right to peacefully protest and inform the government of what they believe is the right path forward.”
But every citizen, as long as they are law-abiding, also has the right to exercise their Second Amendment right. So, what we don’t want to do as a nation is start stripping rights away from law-abiding citizens.
So, I think that the status quo is not OK. And that’s where these young demonstrators are — are speaking out against. And so we do have to find a way forward, but simply stating we need to get rid of other people’s rights is not the right way forward.
Brennan did not ask Ernst what she thinks the problem with the status quo is, who is “stating we need to get rid of other people’s rights” — Students Against School Shootings and other march organizers have made clear they are not calling for a repeal of the Second Amendment –- or what she thinks the right way forward is. Instead, Brennan moved on to questions about President Trump’s policies on international trade.
Comment removed due to a violation of Little Village‘s reader comment policy
I don’t think the appropriate way to get what you want is by threatening a senator, “or the next blood will be yours.”
Oh dear lord.
If all law abiding citizens are allowed to exercise their 2nd amendment rights, let’s have a musket exchange for all of the people who have guns so they can exercise their 2nd amendment right in the way it was meant to be historically. I’d be ok with that.
Sounds ridiculous? So so any weapons that fire enough bullets in ten seconds to kill MULTIPLE people. That’s what we’re talking about.
Right, since the technology has changed in ways the founders might not have anticipated, the rights do not expand to these new weapons. Similarly, first amendment free speech provisions do not apply to radio, television or the Internet.
She says everything the NRA and uneducated Iowans want to hear. This is not about the silly 2nd Amendment or taking guns away from law abiding citizens. This is about special interests buying her vote and her unwillingness to represent the majority of Americans.
She is owned by the NRA even though she denied this. Responsible gun ownership is fine. I would hope that supporters of the 2nd amendment would also support RESPONSIBLE gun ownership. Universal background checks, waiting periods and ensuring that even private gun sales and gun shows NOT bound to the most basic rules become responsible for who they sell to. Our government failed us in the Texas church massacre. They failed us in the latest Florida school massacre. How many lives does the NRA and Joni Ernst find acceptable to protect everyone to own weapons that can kill masses amounts of human lives?
I think the RIGHT TO LIFE pre-empts the right to own an AK-15!