Scott Jennings Suggests Ramaswamy Campaign Ad Is ‘Gonna Blow Up in Their Face’ 

CNN commentator Scott Jennings criticized Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign for releasing an ad featuring the estranged mother of the Ohio Republican gubernatorial nominee’s opponent.

This week, Ramaswamy’s campaign debuted an ad featuring Donna Arthur, the estranged mother of Amy Acton. Acton and her brother, Phillip Stearns, alleged that when they were children, their mother married a man who abused them and raped Acton when she was between nine and 12 years old. The man, Cledith Arthur, was indicted for rape and skipped town with Donna Arthur while out on bail. Ultimately, a judge granted custody of Acton and Stearns to their biological father. The two have not spoken to their mother since.

In the ad, Donna Arthur does not address the allegations, and instead calls her daughter a “liar.” Some prominent Republicans have defended the ad, including Vice President JD Vance, who urged fellow Republicans to “stop whining about” it.

The ad has drawn strong bipartisan criticism.

On Wednesday’s CNN NewsNight, host Abby Phillip asked Jennings, a Republican strategist, for his reaction.

“We know that Ramaswamy and JD Vance are very close and personally and politically,” she said. “But at the same time, there was another option available to the vice president, which is to not address [the ad]… He decided at a rally to minimize the allegations that are at the center of that ad. He chose to do that. That’s a very surprising choice. And I wonder what that says about him to you.”

“Yeah, he could’ve just ignored it,” Jennings responded. “Campaigns make decisions. Surrogates come in and campaign for them. I’m sure not all surrogates agree with all the decisions that are made by all the campaigns they support. So, you could’ve just ignored it.”

Jennings said he had a problem with Vance’s characterization of Republican criticism of the ad as “whining.”

“I took some issue with that today because I don’t see people whining about this,” he continued. “I think they are warning about this. There’s a heck of a lot of Republicans in Ohio and elsewhere who would love to see a Republican get elected governor of Ohio, who do not believe that this is a defensible ad, nor do they believe it’s a good strategy. So, whether you take it from the moral view or you take it just from the political strategy view, there’s a lot of concern. That’s not whining. That’s warning.”

Jennings added that the move is not a good idea before concluding, “From what I’ve heard from my people in Ohio, it’s warning that this may have actually been a backfire. It’s gonna blow up in their face.”

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