Sen. Joni Ernst confronts Biden nominee who called her ‘hideous’ on Twitter: ‘I’m calling you out’

The confirmation hearing for nominees to serve on the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority turned awkward Wednesday, when Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, confronted one of President Biden’s picks for calling her “hideous” on social media.

Ernst began by noting that Geer said in a written statement that one reason why she believes she should serve on the TVA is her ability to “build relationships and work together.”

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After Geer agreed that she also believes that civility is key to working on the TVA board, Ernst claimed that this “appears to be a recent sentiment,” revealing a 2015 tweet in which Geer posted “hideous,” in response to a Fox News tweet featuring an image of Ernst and a quote from her State of the Union response that she delivered that year.

When asked if she could explain the tweet, Geer first said she could not read it, so she had Ernst read it back.

“Well, I apologize if I offended you, and I appreciate you bringing it to my attention,” Geer then said. “And I do, in fact, believe that civility is key, and I’m sorry that I did not demonstrate that, in your opinion, with that tweet.”

Ernst was not satisfied with that response, and she returned to the tweet later in the hearing.

“Maybe you’ve had time to refresh your memory a bit,” Ernst said. “I’m not sure if you’ve made a habit of calling women that disagree with you ‘hideous,’ or if it was simply an exception, but please let me be very clear. I stand by everything that I said in my State of the Union response back in 2015.”

Ernst then reminded everyone listening that the tweet was before former President Donald Trump took office, implying that it could not be blamed on Trump setting an example for Twitter use.