Democrat announces run against Ernst after her ‘We’re all going to die’ comments
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(DES MOINES, IOWA) — J.D. Scholten, a Democratic Iowa state representative and professional baseball player, has entered the race to take on Republican Sen. Joni Ernst in 2026 — prompted in part by her comments to constituents last week about potential cuts to Medicaid.
Ernst faced a number of agitated constituents at a town hall on Friday who expressed concerns that Republican cuts to Medicaid in the bill that would fund Trump’s legislative agenda. After one person in the audience shouted. “People are going to die!” Ernst responded, “Well, we’re all going to die.”
The incident “really hit home with me,” Scholten told ABC News in a brief interview. “We need better leadership than that.”
On Saturday, Ernst posted a sarcastic “apology” for her comments in what appeared to be a cemetery, saying, “I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth. So I apologize, and I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.”
Scholten has run for higher office before, coming within a few points of unseating far-right Rep. Steve King in 2018. He lost the 2020 race for King’s old seat to Rep. Randy Feenstra by a wider margin and currently serves in the state house representing the Sioux City area.
He is currently a pitcher for the Sioux City Explorers of the American Association of Baseball, an independent Major League Baseball partner league.
Should he win the Democratic primary, Scholten said he also plans to make the race a referendum on President Donald Trump’s trade policy, noting that Iowa soybean farmers have been caught up in the trade war with China.
While some of Iowa’s House seats are considered competitive in 2026, Democrats have not won a Senate race in the state since 2008.
-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal appeals court has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of another man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador in violation of a court order.
The order to facilitate the return of Jordin Alexander Melgar-Salmeron, a 31-year-old Salvadoran who was deported last month minutes after a federal appeals court barred his removal, is the fourth known case of a migrant ordered to be returned to the U.S. after being wrongly removed.
Two of the migrants, including Kilmar Abrego Garcia and a Guatemalan man identified in court papers as O.C.G. who was wrongly deported to Mexico, have been returned to the U.S.
On Tuesday, the three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals found that Melgar-Salmeron’s deportation was “improper” because it “contradicted” the government’s assurances to the court that it would not remove him.
The court ordered the administration to facilitate the return of Melgar-Salmeron “as soon as possible” to “ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
The Trump administration was also ordered to file a declaration from an individual with personal knowledge about the 31-year-old’s current physical location and what steps the government will take to facilitate Melgar-Salmeron’s return to the U.S.
According to court records, Melgar-Salmeron had been in immigration detention in the U.S. for two years following a prison sentence for possessing an “unregistered sawed-off shotgun.” In April, Immigration and Customs Enforcement scheduled his removal for May 9.
But on May 7, minutes after a federal appeals court barred Melgar-Salmeron’s deportation, he was removed to El Salvador.
(WASHINGTON) — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard issued a stark warning about the threat of nuclear war in a video posted to her personal account on X, marking a sharp contrast with past comments made by former President Donald Trump on the same topic.
Gabbard, who recently visited Hiroshima, Japan, reflected on the devastation caused by the atomic bomb dropped during World War II in a post on Tuesday. In the video, she warned that political elite and warmongers are fomenting fear and tension, pushing us closer to “the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before.”
The three-minute video shows Gabbard visiting several landmarks in Hiroshima. The video also describes in detail what a nuclear event could mean for the United States — including a simulation of a nuclear attack on San Francisco, California, which appears to destroy the Golden Gate Bridge.
Gabbard’s remarks were similar to previous remarks she’s made on the campaign trail, however, the video was posted days after she traveled to the Shangri-La Dialogue, a major Asian conference held in Singapore, earlier this month.
“This isn’t some made-up science fiction story. This is the reality of what’s at stake, what we are facing now, because as we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elite and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers,” Gabbard said in the video.
“Perhaps it’s because they are confident that they will have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and for their families that regular people won’t have access to,” she added.
Gabbard called on people to “speak up and demand an end to this madness.”
“We must reject this path to nuclear war and work toward a world where no one has to live in fear of a nuclear holocaust,” Gabbard said.
Gabbard’s position is in sharp contrast to Trump’s previous remarks on the use of nuclear weapons during WWII.
In 2016, while campaigning in San Diego, California, Trump criticized then-President Barack Obama for visiting Hiroshima, calling him “pathetic.” He added that he didn’t care that Obama visited, “just as long as he doesn’t apologize” for dropping the bomb: “Who cares.”
More recently, on Jan. 20, 2024, in Manchester, New Hampshire, Trump brought up Hiroshima again, this time to make a point about presidential immunity: “Hiroshima, not exactly a nice act, but it did end the second World War, probably. Right?”
Alexa Henning, Gabbard’s deputy chief of staff, told ABC News that Gabbard and the president align on their plans for peace and prevention of war.
“Acknowledging the past is critical to inform the future. President Trump has repeatedly stated in the past that he recognizes the immeasurable suffering, and annihilation can be caused by nuclear war, which is why he has been unequivocal that we all need to do everything possible to work towards peace,” Henning said in a statement. “DNI Gabbard supports President Trump’s clearly stated objectives of bringing about lasting peace and stability and preventing war.”
Gabbard’s Tuesday remarks also echoed rhetoric from her time as a Democratic presidential candidate, when she warned about neoconservatives, neoliberals and Trump himself.
In 2019, Gabbard said Trump “tore up the Iran nuclear agreement, and has taken action since, step by step, to further push us closer and closer to the brink of nuclear war, to the brink of war with Iran, that would be far more devastating than the war in Iraq, and leading us to the point where every single day that there is no nuclear deal with Iran, Iran is closer to developing a nuclear weapon.”
But when she endorsed Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign as an independent last August, Gabbard shifted her focus to President Joe Biden. Speaking at the National Guard Association conference, she said the Biden-Harris “administration has us facing multiple wars on multiple fronts and regions around the world, and closer to the brink of nuclear war than we ever have been before.”
Gabbard’s initial bid for president in 2020 was sparked by a mistaken ballistic missile alert that sent people in Hawaii into panic, thinking they were under attack. That moment inspired the former Hawaii congresswoman to center much of her campaign on ending wars and seeking peace. Although she has now aligned herself with the Republican Party and the Trump administration, this moment suggests Gabbard is still staking out an independent position on America’s global posture — one deeply rooted in her long-standing skepticism of the Washington establishment.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama participates in a book talk with former German Chancellor Angela Merkel at The Anthem on December 02, 2024 in Washington, DC. Obama and Merkel discussed her memoir “Freedom” as well as world politics and the history the two former leaders have witnessed. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Barack Obama on Thursday joined a virtual meeting with Texas House Democrats who left the state to deny Republicans the ability to pass newly drawn GOP-favorable congressional maps, cheering on their efforts and stressing their work comes at a critical time in the fight against partisan gerrymandering.
ABC News is first to report on the meeting and its contents.
Obama “lauded their fight against the Republican efforts to enact an even more egregious gerrymander in Texas ahead of the midterms. He made clear that they are part of a bigger effort to protect free and fair elections and commended them for inspiring others with their actions,” an Obama spokesperson told ABC News in a statement.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
