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Guess who’s suddenly singing a different tune? None other than up-and-coming RINO, Joni Ernst. The heat got too intense, and now she’s backing off her attacks on Pete Hegseth. But how did she get to this sad, disgraced point?

READ MORE: Need any more proof Jill voted for Trump?

Joni started out as a homespun, rootin’-tootin’ Iowa gal, ready to “castrate the hogs” in DC. Fast forward a few years, and she’s got a new face, new hair, and a new role: full-fledged DC swamp rat who isn’t castrating anything.

In addition, all too often, politicians on both sides of the aisle get too big for their britches and way too cocky for their own good. That’s when they make some truly boneheaded moves—like thinking they can take down President Trump or his nominees to boost their own profile. That’s exactly the puzzling play Senator Joni Ernst made, leaving a lot of people scratching their heads.

Ned Ryun:

Not sure what games @SenJoniErnst thought she was playing at by waging her jihad against Trump’s SecDef pick of @PeteHegseth but it’s time for her to strongly support Pete in a public statement AND then commit to whipping on his behalf. That’s the only acceptable behavior moving forward.

It looked like Joni Ernst was determined to dig her own political grave with her insanely dumb attacks on MAGA favorite Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary. We covered this story, and the most baffling part? Joni had no problem sailing regime loyalist and utter buffoon Lloyd Austin through the nomination process, yet she’s giving Pete Hegseth—a far more qualified, anti-war patriot—a hard time. She even hinted she might not support him.

Revolver:

Let’s not forget—this is the same woman who eagerly pushed through Biden’s national security pick, the warmongering, midwit disaster, Lloyd Austin. You know, the guy who didn’t even bother to inform the White House that he was battling cancer and missing work during critical national security moments.

Her pushback against a patriotic, highly qualified, anti-war vet like Pete Hegseth, while giving a thumbs-up to a DEI disaster like Austin, is beyond infuriating.

According to official court documents, Joni Ernst isn’t exactly the picture of moral virtue. But that hasn’t stopped her from lapping up every baseless “anonymous rumor” tossed at Pete Hegseth. More on that later.

Now, there are rumblings in DC that Joni isn’t even the one making most of these bad decisions—it’s her chief of staff. And that’s even worse, if true. It would show just how weak of a leader Joni really is, letting her subordinates call the shots and run the show.

We encourage you to read this piece—we’ve also shared some eye-opening videos of Joni backing Liz Cheney’s attacks on Trump, supporting trans policies in the military, and more. Check it out here:

​It just got a helluva lot worse for Joni Ernst… final nail in her political coffin?​

The New York Times was quick to notice that Joni realized she had messed up and is now scrambling to get back in MAGA’s good graces.

The NYT (emphasis ours):

Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, signaled on Monday that she would not oppose Pete Hegseth’s bid for defense secretary, hinting at a turnabout after days of hectoring and threats by President-elect Donald J. Trump’s hard-right supporters who threatened political retribution if she failed to fall into line.

[…]

“I appreciate Pete Hegseth’s responsiveness and respect for the process,” Ms. Ernst said in a statement after their meeting, adding that she had had “encouraging conversations” with Mr. Trump’s pick.

“As I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources,” she added.

Ms. Ernst stopped short of promising to support Mr. Hegseth, but in sending a strong signal that she was favorably inclined, she appeared to clear away a major potential hurdle to his confirmation. At the same time, her shift suggested that Mr. Trump’s MAGA base was ready, willing and able to bully Republicans into submitting to his desires.

Mr. Trump’s hard-line backers paid for ads in Ms. Ernst’s home state, questioned her Republican bona fides on social media and even threatened to launch primary challenges against her in 2026 to push her toward supporting Mr. Hegseth as the nominee.

Some prominent Trump activists, including Charlie Kirk and Stephen K. Bannon, the right-wing strategist, pushed to recruit Kari Lake, the former Republican candidate for governor of Arizona who grew up in Iowa, as a potential challenger to Ms. Ernst.

The onslaught of pressure put Ms. Ernst in a bind.

[…]

[…] Ms. Ernst, who last month lost a bid to keep her leadership post as the Senate G.O.P.’s messaging chief to a more conservative challenger, was also well aware of the political risks of opposing one of Mr. Trump’s marquee cabinet picks. That was the case especially as more and more of her male colleagues in the party came out in support of Mr. Hegseth and indicated a willingness to look past the accusations against him, dismissing them as anonymous allegations that should be discounted.

The New York Times went on to recount the MAGA pressure campaign against Senator Ernst.

Initially, Ms. Ernst, who had once been rumored to be on Mr. Trump’s shortlist to lead the Pentagon, appeared hostile to Mr. Hegseth’s selection. She had said he would “have his work cut out for him” to be confirmed, and told Fox News last week after a lengthy meeting with him that she was not yet a “yes” on his bid.

But the blitz Ms. Ernst faced over the last few days was extraordinary. Ads in Iowa praising Mr. Hegseth exhorted viewers to call their senator and demand his confirmation, while Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect’s son, wrote on social media that senators like Ms. Ernst who had voted to confirm Lloyd J. Austin III as defense secretary but were waffling on Mr. Hegseth might not belong in the Republican Party.

Kash Patel was even dispatched to try to talk some sense into the senator:

In a sign of how tenuous things had become, Kash Patel, Mr. Trump’s pick for F.B.I. director, went to Capitol Hill on Monday to meet with Ms. Ernst, not about his own nomination, but to pitch her on Mr. Hegseth and help her back to the fold, according to a person familiar with the visit who spoke about it on the condition of anonymity without authorization to discuss it.

Steve Bannon took a victory lap:

The result was a potential reversal of fortune for Mr. Hegseth, who was battling last week to convince Mr. Trump that his bid was salvageable, as the president-elect weighed replacing him with Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida.

“At 4 p.m. on Thursday, Pete’s nomination hung by a thread,” Mr. Bannon said in an interview. “That’s when the grass roots kicked in hard. MAGA wants a combat vet who will take on the woke and take on the war profiteers.”

Ms. Ernst appeared to take heed of those demands in her statement, in which she praised Mr. Hegseth for committing to a full audit of the Pentagon’s finances. Her statement also suggested that Mr. Hegseth had committed to addressing issues that mattered to her.

Yep. Clearly, Joni is waving the white flag of surrender.

RELATED: Senator Cotton just dropped a doozy on Hegseth nomination…

If you think the power of MAGA is just a few online trolls raising a ruckus, think again. As liberal outlet Talking Points Memo reports, all of you “bullies” out there brought Joni to her knees and likely served as a warning to anybody else who dares to step out of line.

TPM:

One dynamic here could be that as as long as GOP senators cluster together in an anonymous, undifferentiated herd, they can slow roll or block Trump when its in their interest to do so. But if a senator gets separated from the herd, like Ernst did, they can be picked off by MAGA world’s bullying, threatening, and retribution. Stay tuned.

By the time MAGA was done with Senator Ernst, even Senator Lindsey Graham was falling back into line.

The New York Times:

Shortly after Ms. Ernst made her softened stance public, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who said last week that he found the allegations against Mr. Hegseth to be “very disturbing,” put out a statement praising him.

“I had a very positive, thorough and candid meeting with Pete Hegseth about his nomination to be the next secretary of defense,” Mr. Graham said in a statement after hosting Mr. Hegseth in his office.

“When it comes to supporting presidential cabinet nominees, I have a record of being supportive regardless of party because I think every president deserves the right to pick their team,” Mr. Graham added, noting that “his confirmation hearing should not be allowed to become a three-ring circus.”

We the people are back in charge, folks. Keep fighting, stay loud, and remember—the power hold is real, and it’s working… as Sen. Ernst found out the hard way.

And speaking of Joni, let us leave you with this thought:

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