‘You’ve got to ride with it’. Trump says he encouraged Ramaswamy to keep running ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother Speaking in Iowa on Thursday, Donald Trump told supporters that he had personally encouraged Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for Ohio governor, to keep running an attack ad featuring the mother of his Democratic rival, Dr Amy Acton, who had lost custody of her daughter at age 12 because her husband was charged with raping the young girl.
“They did an ad of the mother saying the daughter is incompetent, a liar and disgusting unreliable person,” Trump said, adding some claims that were not, in fact, in the ad.
“My mom would not say that about me – even if she believed it,” the president added, making light of the testimony of a woman who sided with the man charged with raping her own 12-year-old daughter.
“When I first saw it, I said, ‘Wow, that means Vivek easily will win the race’. And then I got a call from Vivek,” Trump said. “He said, ‘What would you recommend? Because I’m getting killed in the press.’ Why? He said, ‘Because they think I should immediately take the ad off.’”
“The mother said horrible things about your opponent,” Trump said. “I said, ‘You’ve got to ride with it’”.
The president made no mention of the fact that the Republican Senate candidate he was there to support, Ashley Hinson, denounced the ad earlier on Thursday. “I think it’s absolutely terrible, and I think they should take the ad down,” Hinson told ABC News ahead of Trump’s appearance.
Donald Trump shared the stage with congresswoman Ashley Hinson, the Republican nominee for Senate, at a campaign rally in Sioux City, Iowa on Thursday. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP
Read More