'QUIET!'

Trump Melts Down After Getting Cornered on Vile Ad

The president can’t seem to stop himself from lashing out at the media.

Donald Trump has angrily berated a female reporter for asking him about sexual abuse allegations at the center of a vile attack ad against a Democratic candidate.

The 80-year-old president grew visibly furious when the NBC News reporter questioned him on Vivek Ramaswamy’s ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother in the heated Ohio gubernatorial race.

Monica Alba, an NBC White House correspondent, asked Trump on Friday whether he would join other Republicans in denouncing the Republican candidate’s disturbing ad, which featured Acton’s estranged mother calling her a “liar.” The ad left out crucial context; court records have confirmed that Acton’s mother lost custody of her as a child over a string of horrifying abuse allegations.

“Republicans like Ashley Hinson, who you were with last night in Iowa, are denouncing the ads. Are you—” Alba began to say before getting cut off by Trump.

“They don’t know the facts. Look, this is a mother that went on the air to say that her daughter, who’s running for governor of the great state of Ohio—that I won in a record all three times. I got the record vote, the highest vote ever. So I know it well, I love the people—A mother is saying, ‘Don’t put my daughter there because she’s a terrible person and she’s a liar.’ Why shouldn’t somebody use that?” he responded.

In the 60-second clip, Donna Arthur tells voters that her daughter, the Democratic nominee, is a “liar” who “needs help.”

“She can’t help you if she needs help herself. People can change, but first they have to tell the truth, and my daughter still isn’t doing that,” Arthur said.

But Acton’s campaign hit back with a damning statement from her brother, Philip Stearns, explaining why they’ve been estranged from their mother.

“It’s not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point,” he said. “After he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died.”

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Acton has spoken openly about the sexual abuse she suffered from age 9 to 12. Her biological father made a report to the police, and in 1978, her stepfather was charged with rape and indicted by a grand jury. He pleaded not guilty.

But that hasn’t stopped Trump from doubling down on the ad.

“But do the sexual abuse allegations mean nothing to you, sir?” Alba asked Trump, setting off a tense back-and-forth.

“Let me ask you, if my mother said—” the president began as Alba kept peppering him with questions.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait. Slow down,” he told Alba. “Who are you with?”

When Alba responded that she was with NBC, Trump said it was “one of the worst networks you have.” NBC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.

“But there are very serious sexual abuse allegations,” Alba pressed on.

“Quiet,” the president barked, putting a finger to his lips.

“They make no difference to you?” the reporter asked again.

“Isn’t she a fresh person? You’re a horrible little reporter, aren’t you?” Trump fumed. “If my mother said bad things about me, do you think the Democrats would put it up? I think so. But my mother thought I was wonderful. Thank you, mom.”

“If I had that ad—I should be so lucky to have an ad like that—why wouldn’t you listen to a mother that says that? Why? Why wouldn’t you, Miss NBC? Why wouldn’t you listen?” he went on.

Alba then pointed out that Arthur chose to stay with Acton’s stepfather despite the allegations of sexual abuse.

“I don’t know anything about a stepfather,” Trump responded.

As Alba continued to lay out more context behind the ad, he pointed a finger at her.

“This one just keeps talking. You just keep talking,” he said.

“I’m answering you, sir,” she replied.

“I don’t know anything about stepfathers from many, many years ago. I know that recently a mother got on television and said that her daughter should not be governor of Ohio,” Trump said. “To me, that’s something that’s very much fair game.”

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