Ernst defends Christie on quarantine

DAVENPORT - Republican Senate hopeful Joni Ernst backed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's controversial quarantine policy Tuesday, saying he has stepped up in the absence of presidential leadership.

Ernst, who had an hourlong conference call with Quad-City Times reporters and editorial board members, said there could have been some accommodation for a nurse who was held over the weekend in a hospital isolation tent in New Jersey. But she largely backed the governor's actions, saying he was looking out for the safety of the citizens of his state.

'He is the governor of New Jersey, and that is his prerogative as a governor to do so,” Ernst said. 'It's quite possible that he could have allowed this young lady to self-quarantine in her own home, but then we just don't know that they will actually do that. So I think he was doing what he felt was right for the people of New Jersey ...”

The nurse, Kaci Hickox, had been treating Ebola victims in West Africa, and upon flying into New Jersey, she was quarantined under a new state order.

The Associated Press reported she had tested negative for Ebola and was released Monday and allowed to return to her home in Maine. Still, she called her detention 'inhumane” and 'completely unacceptable.”

Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced mandatory 21-day quarantines for people who had direct contact with Ebola patients in three West Africa countries.

Ernst said she thinks the federal government should take the lead in preventing the spread of Ebola in the U.S., but she blamed President Barack Obama for not acting strongly enough.

'Reaction has been stirred up because of that, because we didn't see leadership,” she said. 'I think the American people would feel a lot safer if they saw the president was concerned about their safety.”

Since the nurse's quarantine, civil libertarians and public health officials have raised questions about the policies, and Cuomo has softened his stance.

Obama addressed the matter himself Tuesday, not directly commenting on the state quarantine policies, but saying the monitoring of returning health care workers should be 'based in science.”

Ernst has said that she favors a temporary travel ban, with exception of health care workers.

Ernst is in the midst of a 99-county tour in the closing days of the campaign against Democrat Bruce Braley. She has been criticized by Democrats in recent days for failing to meet with editorial boards at some of the state's larger newspapers. And her meeting with the Times came after several requests by the newspaper to sit down with her.

The state senator from Red Oak was speaking by telephone from near Oskaloosa after a stop there.

She was headed to Eastern Iowa, where she would join the Republican ticket and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., at the Scott County Republican Party's annual Ronald Reagan fundraising dinner in Bettendorf. Rubio was traveling with Ernst on Tuesday.