GOP Senator Claims He Had ‘Nothing To Do’ With His Own Ad Blaming Dem Opponent and ‘Dangerous Illegals’ for Fatal Car Wreck

Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) told reporters Saturday that his campaign had “nothing to do” with his own attack ad against his opponent, former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), which used a family’s highway tragedy to denounce illegal immigration.

The ad, funded by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the official campaign arm for the GOP, was still available for viewing on YouTube as of Saturday night, despite Husted saying he told the NRSC to take it down.

“When we learned that the family — First of all let me just say, our campaign had nothing to do with it, and as soon as we learned that the family didn’t like the ad, we told the people who put it up to take it down. So I’m with them on this. They’ve suffered enough, they don’t need to suffer anymore,” Husted said, before taking the opportunity to campaign about “illegal criminals.”

“The open borders policy, though, let millions of illegals into this country, many of them got behind the wheels of cars and trucks with fraudulent CDL’s and were responsible for many deaths across this country, including in Ohio,” Husted said.

“And that point is something that we all need to understand, that when you do not follow the rule of law, when you let  millions of people into this country illegally, it endangers everyone, including on our highways, from fentanyl, from human trafficking —that’s the reason that we needed to close the border, that’s the reason that we need to ban sanctuary cities and sanctuary states and deport the illegal criminals that are in this country, that are causing harm to American citizens in Ohio and across our state,” Husted said.

The ad in question began with an announcer saying, “Sherrod Brown, opened our borders to dangerous illegals. The consequences were deadly.”

NEWS ANCHOR: Modou Ngom was behind the wheel of this semi-truck. It caused a chain-reaction crash that killed 37-year-old Luke Saposky, 36-year-old Linnea Saposky, and their one-year-old child.

ANNOUNCER: But Brown doesn’t care.

BROWN: I don’t hear a lot about immigration from voters except people on the far-right.

ANNOUNCER: Because of him, Ohioans paid the price.

The three Saposky family members died in a multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 71 in Delaware County north of Columbus, OH, in April that officials said was caused by Ngom.

The Columbus Dispatch said it tried and failed to independently verify that Ngom was a Somalian immigrant who became a U.S. citizen 10 years ago. Meanwhile, the Delaware County prosecutor said Ngom does not appear to have any criminal history other than misdemeanor traffic tickets.

The surviving Soposky family released a statement saying, “Lynnea and Luke were not political symbols. Lynnea was a beloved veterinarian. Luke loved to brew beer. … They loved each other and their son. Our grief is not raw material for a campaign, and their images are not public property to repurpose for anyone’s advantage.”

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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