00:02Vice President J.D. Vance is firing back at Republicans criticizing a controversial
00:07attack ad in Ohio's governor's race. And President Trump is now weighing in too,
00:11though he's not quite as eager to defend it.
00:14Vance was in Ohio Wednesday campaigning for Republican Vivek Ramaswamy.
00:18But before that rally, he had some words for members of his own party who've condemned
00:22Ramaswamy's latest campaign ad. But I have to admit that I'm a little bit disgusted
00:27when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than
00:33they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States
00:37of America. So I would say to Ohio Republicans, do you actually think that Amy Acton is unfit to
00:43serve as governor of the state of Ohio? I do. The ad features Democratic candidate Amy Acton's
00:48estranged mother, Donna Arthur, calling her daughter a liar and urging Ohioans not to vote for her.
00:54It's not easy for a mother to say this, but Amy has a serious problem. She is a liar.
01:01Ramaswamy is standing by the ad with his campaign planning to spend $4 million promoting it.
01:07And Vance went even further at their rally Wednesday afternoon.
01:10And the whole time Vivek has stood tall and he has talked about what he wants to accomplish for the
01:16people of Ohio. And now the media and the Democrats in the state of Ohio are obsessed,
01:21because guess what? Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial,
01:28which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar.
01:32Trump was asked about the controversy later Wednesday.
01:35I know nothing about it, but I hear the mother went very rogue on the daughter,
01:41doesn't have a lot of respect for the daughter. It's a very unusual situation to have a mother
01:46hated daughter that much. But I don't think that has anything to do with Vivek.
01:51The ad has drawn criticism from both parties, including Ohio Republican Senator John Husted,
01:57who says he wouldn't have run it. Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley
02:01also weighed in. She called Ramaswamy a, quote, bad guy, adding it's a shame he continues to get away
02:08with it. Acton has spoken publicly about being sexually abused as a child by her stepfather.
02:13He was charged with raping her when she was 12. Acton and her brother were removed from their
02:19mother's custody. Now that brother is appearing in an ad released by Acton's campaign.
02:24I received a lot of abuse, but Amy always got the worst of it. Shame on Vivek. It's the contempt
02:31he has for Amy is the contempt he has for Ohio. He's not fit to lead. Acton says she hasn't
02:37seen
02:37her mother since the court case against her stepfather in the late 1970s. Her campaign has declined to
02:43respond directly to Vance's latest comments.
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