Vance Goes All In on Ramaswamy Ad, Says He’s ‘Disgusted’ By GOP ‘Whining’ About It

Vice President JD Vance took questions from reporters on Wednesday and was asked about Vivek Ramaswamy’s highly controversial attack ad against Democrat Amy Acton, which has roiled the already nasty Ohio governor’s race.

“Vice President, Daniel Bush with the BBC. Thank you. You mentioned after this you’re going to a campaign event. Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign put out a controversial ad featuring his opponent’s mother. Republicans, some are backing away from that. Do you think that that ad was appropriate?” Vance was asked during an Ohio press conference.

“Well, I’ll be honest with you, whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern. What is my concern is who’s going to govern the next generation of American government? Who is going to win the Senate race in the state of Ohio? Who’s going to win the governor’s race in the state of Ohio? And I’ve got to be honest, when I see Republicans, people in my party, reacting so strongly, especially elected officials, have the opinion you want to have on that ad,’ Vance replied, adding:

If you think it was too tough, say it was too tough. If you think it wasn’t tough enough, say that. But I have to admit that I’m a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America.

At an Ohio rally shortly after the press conference, Vance went all in on defending the ad, “And now the media and the Democrats in the state of Ohio are obsessed because, guess what? Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar.”

Ramaswamy sparked bipartisan fury after a Tuesday ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother was released and later tied to his campaign. In the ad, Acton’s mother calls her a liar and attacks her character. But as the details around Acton’s relationship with her mother emerged, critics and pundits quickly accused Ramaswamy of trying to weaponize the childhood sexual abuse Acton suffered at the hands of her mother’s then-husband, which resulted in authorities removing Acton from her mother’s care.

Acton’s brother Phil Stearns taped an ad in reply to Ramaswamy and offered some additional details. “I received a lot of abuse, but Amy always got the worst of it. She continued to receive that abuse because she knew she had to protect me from that, and that if she hadn’t done that, who knows where I would have ended up. And she was 11 and 12 years old, and to think that that’s somehow a talking point? Shame on Vivek. The contempt he has for Amy is the contempt he has for Ohio. He’s not fit to lead,” Stearns said in the ad.

Former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who feuded with Ramaswamy during the 2024 primaries, was among the high-profile Republicans to slam Ramaswamy over the ad, writing, “Not laughing. Just seeing what we tried to tell everyone back then. He’s a bad guy. It’s a shame he continues to get away with it.”

Vance offered more thoughts on the ad in his lengthy answer, “So I would say to Ohio Republicans, do you actually think that Amy Acton is unfit to serve as governor of the state of Ohio? I do. Do you actually think that Sherrod Brown should not be given a 50th year in public service to ship American jobs overseas and to bring men into women’s sports? Because I do. I actually think, and I would hope that my fellow Republicans think, that the reason John Husted should be a United States senator is because he’s the right man for the job. And because Vivek should be the governor of Ohio, we should actually fight for these candidates.”

“So my message to Republicans is, remember some of the ads that have been run against me? I’ve run in, I guess, two races now in my entire life. People have called Vivek Ramaswamy a murderer in some of the advertisements run against him,” Vance continued, adding

People have used the President of the United States. How many times have we seen advertisements using his family members, the strange family members, to go out against the President of the United States? Politics is a tough business. And my message to my fellow elected Republicans is, if you actually believe in the things you say you believe in, stop whining about an advertisement and go win the race in 13 days. Next question.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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