Republican Candidate Angrily Denies Saying Thing She Just Said on Video

Screenshot via @ThisWeekABC on X

Rep. Ashley Hinson, Iowa’s Republican Senate candidate, angrily denied remarks she made about Vice President JD Vance during a Thursday ABC News interview — despite the exchange being recorded.

During the exchange, ABC News’ Jonathan Karl pressed Hinson about a new controversial campaign ad from Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy featuring his Democratic opponent Amy Acton’s estranged mother accusing her daughter of lying about her childhood.

Bipartisan outrage erupted after the video’s release, given Acton’s history of childhood abuse. The Democrat has said she and her brother, Phillip Stearns, were removed from the custody of their mother, Donna Arthur, when Acton was 12, after suffering severe abuse and neglect. That included sexual abuse by her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, whom Arthur defended.

Vance, though, declared Wednesday that he’s “a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement” than they are about Democrats.

On Thursday’s edition of ABC News’ This Week, Karl asked Hinson, “What do you think of this ad that Vivek Ramaswamy has run with Amy Acton’s mother?”

Shaking her head, the Republican congresswoman responded, “It’s terrible. Um, I think about it as a mom, and you think about your kids surviving childhood sexual abuse and having to relive that trauma on TV again? I think it’s absolutely terrible, and I think they should take the ad down.”

“What do you make of the vice president saying that he’s ‘disgusted’ — not by the ad, but by Republicans condemning the ad?” Karl followed up.

Shaking her head again, Hinson said, “Yeah, no. It’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely the wrong tone. Iowans, and probably Ohioans, want someone who’s gonna be an empathetic leader, and I think it sends absolutely the wrong message, and I would bet that Amy Acton and I probably don’t agree on anything either, but, like, the last thing I would want [for] someone who is running against me is to force them to relive a childhood trauma. So, again, I think it’s wrong, and it should come down.”

Plenty of social media accounts picked up on Hinson’s comments, including @PollTracker2024, which wrote on X in promotion of the interview, “Ashley Hinson calls on Vivek Ramaswamy to take down Acton ad in interview with ABC News. She also called JD Vance’s comments ‘ridiculous’ when he defended the ad.”

The Republican was quick to hit back, though, curiously writing, “I never called the VP ridiculous. What’s ridiculous is the media’s characterization of his comments and of mine. Yes, I believe this ad is ridiculous and needs to come down. The VP and I disagree on one ad, but we agree on how to save our great country. I look forward to continuing to work with him and President Trump when I’m in the U.S. Senate.”

Notably, neither Karl nor @PollTracker2024 claimed Hinson called Vance himself “ridiculous” — only that she had used the word to describe his comments about the Ramaswamy ad.

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