Moderator: “Want to Take Another Crack at it?”
With less than 3 weeks until Election Day, it has been one unimaginably bad week for Senator Joni Ernst. She was out-fundraised $28.7m to $7.2m. New polling shows her increasingly trailing. And a federal court just ordered the FEC to take action on Ernst’s dark money group illegally propping up her campaign.
Then, in last night’s debate, it reached a breaking point. Senator Ernst, who was in Washington, was asked to list the price of soybeans – which she didn’t know – and the pent-up desperation came crashing down in a heap of humiliation that’s gone viral with over 1.7 million views.
WATCH: Ernst Flounders When Pushed on the Price of Soybeans
To make the embarrassment worse, Senator Ernst scrambled to blame her lack of knowledge on anyone but herself after being reminded by the moderators, “You grew up on a farm, you should know this.”
Ernst’s campaign was so deep in damage control, Communications Director Brendan Conley tweeted for the first time ever this election claiming that Ernst was answering about the price of corn, not the price of soybeans – which still would have been nearly two dollars off the mark.
Here are just a few of the reactions to Senator Ernst’s viral soybean scandal:
From POLITICO Playbook:
From Huff Post:
Wall Street Journal reporter Lindsay Wise:
Vox reporter Matthew Yglesias:
CQ Roll Call White House and Congress Chief Correspondent Niels Lesniewski:
From Iowa Starting Line newsletter:
Host of No Lie With BTC Brian Tyler Cohen:
Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg:
Former Missouri U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill:
From Newsweek:
From Raw Story:
