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Dem Hopeful Schools Trump Over Twisted MAGA Ad Defense

The ad features a Democrat’s estranged mother calling her daughter a liar.

Amy Acton, the Ohio gubernatorial hopeful and victim of a disgusting attack ad from her opponent, has schooled President Donald Trump for defending it.

The ad features Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, calling her daughter a liar. But it omitted the history of alleged abuse that led to Acton being removed from her mother’s custody at age 12, after her stepfather was accused of sexually abusing her.

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Acton’s political opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, has doubled down on his ad, emboldened by Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s support.

Speaking about Trump’s support of the ad, Acton responded with class. “I’ve worked with the president before,” the Democratic nominee told MS NOW, “but I think he needs to learn the facts of this case. They’re irrefutable.”

“All of our living governors have spoken in Ohio and condemned this ad, and that means the world to me,” Acton said in the interview. “What I am focused on is what these governors know: that the people of Ohio are struggling. They’re ready for change.”

Trump staunchly defended Ramaswamy’s ad, which riled politicians and voters on both sides of the political divide. “I told him, leave it up and look upstairs and say, ‘Thank you God, very much,’” Trump said at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, on Thursday. “I only wish I could have had an ad like that against somebody.”

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“You’re trying to take a horrible situation for a Democrat and make it look better. The mother said really bad things about a person that wants to be the Democrat governor of Ohio,” Trump said on Friday. “This has nothing to do with a stepfather or anything else.”

Ramaswamy, a billionaire biotech entrepreneur, defended it during a campaign event. “Our ad was about a consistent track record of Amy Acton telling lies, including during this campaign,” he said.

By Saturday, however, his campaign quietly altered the original 60-second version with a 30-second edit, which dropped footage of Acton’s mother disputing her account of childhood homelessness.

In response to the ad on Friday, The Cook Political Report changed its rating of the Ohio race from “toss-up” to “lean Democrat.”

”My opponent has spent $110 million and counting in the most abhorrent, lying, made-up ads, and it never moved the needle one inch. We have started tied or ahead in every single poll in this race. We’re up double digits with independents, and we have tons of Republicans crossing over,” Acton said.

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