Sen. Joni Ernst caught a Biden nominee by surprise during a confirmation hearing Wednesday when she produced an old tweet that seemingly mocked the Iowa Republican’s appearance.
Ernst asked Beth Prichard Geer, up for appointment to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s board of directors, if civility was something important to her. When Geer said yes, Ernst pulled out a board with Geer’s response to a 2015 tweet quoting her State of the Union response in which she called the senator “hideous.”
AHEAD OF VOTE SENATE GOP LAMENT KETANJI BROWN JACKSON CONFIRMATION
I would have ✨died on the spot✨@SenJoniErnst just confronted a Biden nominee with a FLOORCHART of her 2015 tweet attacking Ernst’s physical appearance ?? pic.twitter.com/Ysh51OUKar
— Lyndsey Fifield (@lyndseyfifield) April 6, 2022
The move caught Geer off guard, who apologized for the tweet.
“Well, I apologize if I offended you, and I appreciate you bringing it to my attention,” she said. “And I do, in fact, believe that civility is key, and I’m sorry that I did not demonstrate that, in your opinion, with that tweet.”
Later, when Ernst pressed her on the use of language, Geer said the “hideous” comment was not in reference to Ernst’s looks but to her views.
“Obviously, I was not calling you personally hideous and certainly not your appearance,” Geer said. “And again, I apologize if it came across that way. I mean no disrespect.”
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Ernst challenged her on that point as well, saying, “How else could this come across? The word ‘hideous’ to me, it only has one meaning.”
The senator ended her allotted time saying she would not vote for Geer to sit on the board of the TVA, which oversees electricity in much of the South. Geer is currently the chief of staff for former Vice President Al Gore.
