Ernst says Clinton ‘unfit’ for presidency

CLEVELAND - U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told the Republican National Convention here Monday the nation is shrinking from its place of leadership in the world, and she said Hillary Clinton was unfit to be president.

Ernst, a first-term senator and Iraq War veteran, joined a former Navy SEAL and ex-member of the Army Special Forces on stage at the convention on a night aimed at making the case that presumptive nominee Donald Trump would 'make America safe.”

Ernst faulted the Obama administration for failing to lead in a world jeopardized by a range of potential dangers. But while criticizing the president, she mostly trained her remarks on Clinton.

'Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton cannot be trusted,” Ernst said. 'Her judgment and character are not suited to be sitting in the most powerful office in the world.”

Ernst also faulted Clinton for failing to put a stop the expansion of terrorism in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, as well as 'lying” about her private email server.

She said Clinton backs policies that would bring captured terrorists 'into our backyards.”

Unlike a range of speakers earlier in the evening who faulted Clinton for the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Ernst made no mention of that attack.

As for Trump, she praised him as someone who 'will not hesitate to call radical Islamic terrorism by its name, and he will not hesitate to destroy those that wish to harm our nation.”

The claim that Clinton is not fit to be president in many ways echoes the doubts Democrats have been raising about Trump, questioning his temperament and judgment. And that is what Democrats did in response to Ernst's speech.

'Tonight, Joni Ernst urged Iowans to support Donald Trump, a man who is temperamentally unfit to be commander-in-chief of the United States of America, whose foreign policy ideas are reckless, erratic and contradict our fundamental values,” Iowa Democratic Party Chair Andy McGuire said, adding Trump has previously called the United States weak and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ernst, who has been battling a cold, was making yet another foray Monday onto the national stage. In 2015, she gave the Republican Party's response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.

At the time, the speech drew a lot of attention for her mention of wearing bread bags on her shoes in bad weather as a child, a sign of rural Iowa frugality.

There was no mention of shoe coverings this time, but Ernst did talk of her upbringing and her mother, who she had earlier in the day said would be watching the speech back home. Ernst said her mother had instilled a tenacity in her that she linked with the 'can-do” attitude that has 'served as the foundation of our country for 240 years.”