Ernst promises to ‘come out swinging’ in tonight’s Republican convention speech

CLEVELAND - U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst on Sunday gave Iowa's delegates to the Republican National Convention a preview of her prime-time speech by taking President Obama to task for failing to keep Americans safe.

'I'll come out swinging,” the junior Iowa senator said in preparing to deliver a 10-minute speech at 9:36 p.m. Iowa time during her first participation in a national political convention. Her speech will focus on national security.

Speaking at her pre-convention 'Make ‘Em Squeal” barbecue Sunday, Ernst said the world 'is virtually imploding” because 'we have a lack of leadership coming out of the White House right now.” The Red Oak Republican, who was on presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump's short list of running mates, said she fears Democrat Hillary Clinton would continue Obama's policies for the next four years if she wins in November.

'We have failed to lead,” Ernst said. 'We need to regain our place in the world again as a global leader as we combat threats.” She also berated congressional Democrats for blocking military spending and said she'll be thinking about her old Iowa National Guard battalion now back serving in Afghanistan when she addresses the convention.

'I think about those people,” said Ernst, 46, who retired as a lieutenant colonel after 23 years in the Iowa Army National Guard - including a deployment as commander of a transportation company in Iraq and Kuwait. She thinks she was invited to speak to the convention because of that experience and her service on the Armed Services and Homeland Security committees.

'I want to point out some of what I believe to be failures of the current administration and why we need a change,” Ernst told reporters. 'We just continue to see failure after failure, failure to lead from this administration. America's lost a voice. We can't continue to do that. The world is hungry for a leader.”

Ernst said she will do some rehearsing Monday in anticipation to speaking to the largest group she's ever addressed.

'It's go big or go home,” she noted.

Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, introduced Ernst at Sunday's event as 'Iowa's new superstar,” and Gov. Terry Branstad predicted she would 'do great” Monday night and would have been a good vice presidential choice.

As it is, Branstad said, Trump tapped a 'common-sense conservative” when he chose Indiana Gov. Mike Pence to be his running mate and predicted the general election is 'going to be a rough and tumble campaign like we've never seen before.” He said there would be 'ups and downs” given that Clinton has been advertising heavily, but noted she has lost ground to Trump amid the investigation of her private email use as U.S. secretary of state.