GOP senator says she choked on 'woke policies' at Senate lunch where Rand Paul used Heimlich maneuver to save her life

• Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa choked on a piece of food at a Senate lunch on Thursday.
• Sen. Rand Paul, a doctor, performed the Heimlich maneuver to save her life.

Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa reportedly choked on a piece of food at a lunch with fellow Republican senators lunch on Thursday.

That required the intervention of Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a trained ophthalmologist, to perform the Heimlich maneuver on his colleague.

Ernst later joked about the incident on X, saying that she couldn't "help but choke on the woke policies" that the Democrats are "forcing down our throats."

Sen. Lindsey Graham apparently witnessed the choking and expressed gratitude for Paul, an occasional rival.

"God bless Rand Paul," he told the Washington Post. "I never thought I'd say that."