Senator Joni Ernst joined me this morning:

Audio:

04-19hhs-ernst

Transcript:

HH: Joined now by Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa. I think I’ll call her Col. Ernst, retired Iowa National Guard Army Reserve this morning, because we begin, good morning, Senator, welcome back, good to talk to you.

JE: Hey, great to be with you, Hugh. Thank you.

HH: What do you know about, what’s your response to what Israel did overnight?

JE: Well, at this point, Hugh, I only know what is publicly available. I should learn more today as I go into work at our beautiful nation’s capital. But it is in response, of course, to the attacks on Israel over the weekend. And there is a very clear difference here. You know, what we saw with Iran and their attacks on Israel, you know, hundreds of drones and missiles, and very little damage done to Israel. What we saw from Israel was a very, very measured, targeted response. To me, it just shows the superiority of Israel and what it is capable of doing versus what we saw was more of a demonstrated weakness coming from Iran.

HH: Senator, there are many reports, and I haven’t been able to nail them down, yet, that Israel used something new, a different kind of missile. And you’re on the subcommittee on emerging threats on the Senate Defense committee, and I already referenced your military service. Should we expect to know the specifics of what Israel used? And if it was a razzle dazzle something that stunned the Iranians on how precisely it could hit and how it got past everything?

JE: I don’t think that Israel wants us to know exactly what they are using. And again, I think that’s okay. I want them to have cutting edge weaponry and platforms. They live in a very dangerous area of the world. They are surrounded by those that are perpetuating the support for Hamas. So yes, I anticipate that it probably is something that they have recently developed or do have in their toolbox. So I don’t think we’ll know right way exactly what it is. I think we can learn that in upcoming months, maybe. But certainly, I’m glad that they have the capability to defend as they do, and to attack as they do. They have every right to exist, and they have every right to strike back against those who come at them.

HH: Now Senator, Matt Continetti, who is clearly one of the most dominant views of the next generation behind me, more of your generation. He works at AEI. He writes for the Washington Free Beacon. He’s on the Commentary pod. His column this morning is that Israel was right to disregard Team Biden’s urging that they not do anything. I agree with Matt on that. Do you?

JE: Absolutely, I do. I see Israel and much of the world that is in chaos as direct result from the appeasement of Joe Biden and his administration. We absolutely have to stand with Israel. Israel has a right to defend itself. The result of Biden’s appeasement, you know, he has told Iran “Don’t” over and over again. Well, it means nothing when you’ve appeased them for three and a half years. The Biden administration failed to enforce the sanctions. We’ve seen Iran’s oil revenue go to a five-year high. That’s $80 billion dollars of revenues for Iran that’s directly funding their war against Israel, and funding, not to mention, the American troops that have been killed. Just recently, we had three American Army Reservists killed at Tower 22 in Jordan. You know, those missiles and drones that attacked Tower 22, those were bought and paid for with Iran’s oil revenue. So President Biden needs to grow a spine and start pushing back against these authoritarian regimes. Absolutely, I agree.

HH: Senator Ernst, I want to interrupt you there, though. I have watched President Biden this week pretty closely. Physically, it is a very unfortunate thing to see. He is infirm. Do you believe he’s actually running the national security response? I think it’s the triumvirs of Tony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, and Defense Secretary Austin. I don’t think it’s President Biden. Do you?

JE: I don’t think he’s capable. I don’t think he’s capable. No, you’re right. He is infirm. And so I think it is those he has surrounded himself with, or maybe a few others. But most certainly, this is a man who, in my estimation, he cannot lead. He’s proven that. And whether that was willful in the past or not, just his appeasement, but I think as we move through the years, we see an ever-increasing failing Joe Biden. So I don’t think he’s capable.

HH: Senator, when you go around the Hill, do people talk about, like, the cannibal story that he came up with this week? I mean, do they, in the Cloak Room or at the conference meeting, do they look at each other and say my goodness, cannibals?

JE: Yes. Actually, we were laughing about that yesterday.

HH: Oh, geez.

JE: And where does this stuff come from? And I’ll point out one that I think is absolutely horrible. I have a friend who lost her husband in Afghanistan. She is a gold star wife. And just recently at, just recently over the course of the Christmas holiday, she had been invited to the White House, as they often invite gold star families in. And he reiterated the story that he lost his son in Iraq.

HH: Oh, my.

JE: Now he continues to either lie about it, or he simply can’t remember.

HH: You know, Senator, you’re too young to remember 8-track tapes. You’re too young to know that when they be…

JE: Oh, I do remember those.

HH: Okay, well, then you were in, like, third grade. When they began to skip, they just kind of go different places, and you’ve got to throw them away. And I think his 8-track tape upstairs is skipping. Senator, Donald Trump, by contrast, went to the bodega up in Harlem, comes out of court every day, and lets everybody have it, energy to spare. I think he’s going to get convicted anyway. It’s a New York jury. I think that will be overturned, because it’s a nonsense lawsuit. What do you think that trial is doing to American politics?

JE: I think this is absolutely horrible, Hugh. It is just crazy the way the Democrats are pursuing Donald Trump on nonsense charges. And you see the exact opposite in the Senate where we had the trial, well, we were supposed to have the trial of Secretary Mayorkas, where we actually had evidence and proof that could have been reviewed, and the Democrats just simply dismissed it. So on one hand, they’re bound and determined, decades later, to continue going after the former president of the United States in a bogus charge. And then you’ve got right there in the nation’s capital, you’ve got Democrats who are like, oh yeah, there’s all this evidence, but we’re not going to allow you to bring it up, and we’re not going to have a trial in the United States Senate, even though it’s our Constitutional duty.

HH: Senator, yesterday, Michael Waltz pointed out that he had gone and reviewed the documents that Special Counsel Robert Hur looked at. He is shocked at what was in those documents. I don’t know if you have them. I don’t think you’re on the Intel committee. You’re on Armed Services. But have you heard that report, that the Hur documents, the ones that Joe Biden had, were very, very troubling?

JE: Well, yes. And I do trust Congressman Waltz. He’s a good friend. And I have not reviewed the documents myself. I’m on Armed Services. I could go review those documents. But I know exactly what I heard in the public space as well. That is plenty troubling right there. I see what Joe Biden is doing. I see that he is infirm, as you stated. And I don’t know how he can be the candidate for the Democratic Party other than he’s a useful puppet right now.

HH: I think you’re right. Let me ask you about Wisconsin. The new Fox polls came out, and you’re next door to Wisconsin. You must know Wisconsin pretty well.

JE: Yes. Oh, yeah.

HH: It’s tied. What do you think that says? I know, you know, the former President is going to win Iowa handily, but you know Wisconsin well. What do you think is going to happen to the state to your north?

JE: Well, I think he’s going to win.

HH: Trump?

JE: I think he’s got momentum on his side. He’s leading in a number of really important swing states by anywhere from two to eight percentage points. And if you just look across the country, and I think Wisconsin is probably a pretty good barometer, Americans, they’re just sick of suffering under Joe Biden’s policies. So just as we talked a minute ago, he’s such a disaster on the foreign stage, on the world stage. But right here domestically, you know, he has failed the American people. So I think Wisconsin goes the way of Donald Trump. I think a lot of these polls, I think they’re actually pretty conservative in their numbers, because Trump, as you know, will have a lot of voters that don’t participate in polls or may not answer truthfully in polls. So I think there is a lot more support for Donald Trump out there than what you’re actually going to see in the papers, on the TV, and here on the radio.

HH: Now two weeks ago, the former President told me Israel needed to finish the job, and they needed a victory. That means going into Rafah. Do you support, despite what Joe Biden has said, and Jake Sullivan has allegedly said, do you think Israel ought to go into Rafah and finish the job with Hamas?

JE: I am going to support Israel, whatever they decide to do, Hugh, because that should be my role sitting in the United States Senate with a good friend and ally in Israel. It is not up to American to tell Israel how to do their job and defend their country and wipe out Hamas.

HH: But you just came back from Ukraine as well.

JE: Yes.

HH: Are you in favor of the aid package that looks like it’s going to get out of the House this weekend?

JE: I am. I am in favor of moving forward on a supplemental package. I do caveat it. We’ll see what comes over, but my mantra for U.S. foreign aid has always been weapons, not welfare. So whether it’s Israel with right to defend herself, whether it is Ukraine, you know, getting the weapons to pound the bloody hell out of the Russians, whatever that is, we can provide the weapons. We are the arsenal of democracy. And I know a lot of those lefties, they hate it. They hate it. But we can provide the weapons and the munitions in order to at least give these countries a fighting chance to push back on these authoritarian regimes. We have that opportunity, and we should do it.

HH: Can I keep you for three more minutes, Senator?

JE: Yes, you may.

HH: I would like to hear about Ukraine. I’m going to go to a break and then come back with Senator Joni Ernst. We’ll post it on the podcast today.

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HH: Welcome back, America. I’m joined by Senator Joni Ernst. Senator Ernst, I’ll play this in the next segment, but thank you for staying with me. You just came back from a CODEL to Ukraine. And when I was talking with your staff setting up the interview, we didn’t know Israel would attack overnight. We didn’t know the Wisconsin polling would come out. What did you see? What did you do? What do you think the United States should do?

JE: Well, first, I’ll start with that last question. I do think that we need to supply Ukraine with the munitions that they need. We need to provide them the weaponry they need to push the Russians back. So right now, they lack on air defense munitions, Interceptors. We know that they would like to have fighter jets for air superiority, which would allow them to get the Russians back even further, perhaps back into Russia. There’s a lot that we should be doing there. But as I traveled across the country of Ukraine, it was a bipartisan delegation that traveled. We went to Kiev, of course. We went up to the northern region up closer to Belarus and Russia and visited a number of villages up there where the Russians had committed war crimes, atrocities, killing women, children, raping women, taking elderly hostage, putting an entire village in the basement of a schoolhouse for a month where they had to stack up dead bodies in the corner, because there was no room for them to move around the basement. It was suffocating down there. We heard all of these stories as we moved across the country and talked to the local population. In Odessa, we were able to visit the port. Oddly enough, later that night, the Odessa port was struck by the Russians. This is Ukraine’s one way of moving grain and goods out of their country. Believe me, folks. Ukraine is desperately trying to support itself. If anything, we should be able to provide them the means to support themselves. They are providing fighters to the front lines. They’re not asking for American troops on the ground, which I think is a benefit for the United States. If Russia does take Ukraine, I guarantee they’re going to be knocking on our NATO friends and allies’ doors, and then we will have Americans involved.

HH: So my last question, Senator…

JE: So we definitely have got to step up.

HH: We’re in the election season, and obviously inflation, abortion, the President, former President being persecuted, Israel’s all going to matter. How much is national security going to matter? I’m always interested in it, but I know it’s only 3-4% of the population that votes that way. But in this election, it might be decisive that the Republicans support Israel, and the Democrats don’t.

JE: Right. I think it is pretty decisive. And I think Americans pay attention. I know, you know, moms and dads out across the nation, those families, they have a lot on their plate right now because of inflation and domestic issues. But folks, all of that will not matter if we have Russia coming after us, if we have China coming after us. This is important stuff. So as long as we can keep the rest of the world strong and free, we can be strong and free. But I always believe national security includes protecting ourselves domestically, and we didn’t even talk about the Southern border, Hugh. That is a disaster. And that plays into our national security as well. The Chinese are sending Chinese nationals over the Southern border.

HH: Absolutely.

JE: That’s a whole other story for another day. But we can do it all.

HH: Our next interview, Senator. Our next interview. Thank you so much for joining me. Good luck on the Hill today in getting that package passed and over the line on Sunday or Monday. I appreciate you joining me, Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa. Thank you, Senator.

JE: You bet. Thank you. Thank you.