Trump Says He Told Ramaswamy To Run Ad Featuring Opponent’s Estranged Mother Excoriating Sexually Abused Daughter

President Trump says it was his idea to keep a controversial ad which features the Democratic nominee’s mother calling her daughter a liar in the Ohio governor’s race on the air. The mother, Donna Arthur, has not spoken to her daughter, Dr. Amy Acton, in nearly 50 years because they became estranged after standing by her partner who had been sexually abusing Dr. Acton when she was a child. The ad was put together by the campaign of Vivek Ramaswamy, the billionaire businessman who is now running for governor of Ohio as a Republican. He sought the GOP nomination for president in 2024 but swiftly dropped out of the race after the Iowa Caucuses and endorsed Mr. Trump. The ad was released by a political blogger in Ohio named DJ Byrnes who goes by “The Rooster” on Monday night after a source sent him a clip that the Ramaswamy campaign had been testing with focus groups. After the ad leaked, Dr. Acton’s campaign and other officials swiftly condemned it because it relied on the testimony of the woman who helped protect the man who was sexually assaulting Dr. Acton when she was a girl. Dr. Acton and her younger brother were taken from their mother’s custody in 1978 after their stepfather was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting Dr. Acton.The Ramaswamy campaign initially dodged questions about the ad, saying that it raised concerns about Dr. Acton’s truthfulness. In a statement Tuesday, the campaign neither confirmed nor denied involvement with the production of the ad. On Tuesday night, Mr. Ramaswamy told reporters that it was, in fact, his campaign that had produced the ad and that they would spend millions of dollars to air it across the state in the final two weeks of the campaign, despite bipartisan condemnation. During a rally in Iowa on Thursday night, Mr. Trump said it was he who convinced Mr. Ramaswamy to run the ad even though other Republicans have asked him to take it down. “I got a call from Vivek. He said, ‘What would you recommend? Because I’m getting killed in the press.’” Mr. Trump recalled on the rally stage. “He said, ‘Because [people] think I should immediately take the ad off [the air].”“I said, ‘You gotta ride with it’” Mr. Trump said. “He made a commercial, he put it up, you, like I would do, like most people [would] do,” the president concluded. On Thursday, the outgoing GOP governor of Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine, became the latest Ohio Republican to call for the ad to be taken off the air. Dr. Acton served in Mr. DeWine’s cabinet as the head of Ohio’s health department during Mr. DeWine’s first term and the two have maintained a good relationship despite their political differences. “It’s wrong to run this ad. And even at this late time, my friend saw the ad run this morning on TV. I would just urge the Ramaswamy campaign to take this down. It’s just wrong,” Mr. DeWine told reporters Thursday morning. The secretary of state, Frank LaRose, and Senator Jon Husted, both said Wednesday that they would not run the ad if they were in Mr. Ramaswamy’s shoes.

Trump Says He Told Ramaswamy To Run Ad Featuring Opponent’s Estranged Mother Excoriating Sexually Abused Daughter

Trump Says He Told Ramaswamy To Run Ad Featuring Opponent’s Estranged Mother Excoriating Sexually Abused Daughter

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