WATCH: Trump Spars With Leftwing Media and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Over Amy Acton’s Mother Appearing in Campaign Ad – “If It Were My Mother, I’d be Fair Game!”

President Trump on Thursday sparred with reporters over Vivek Ramaswamy’s recent attack ad against his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, which features Acton’s own mother telling Ohioans not to vote for her.  

As The Gateway Pundit reported on Tuesday, Donna Arthur, Acton’s mother, came out swinging in a Vivek Ramaswamy campaign ad, slamming her daughter as a “liar” and a sick person who “needs help.”

“I love my daughter, but when I saw her lying about her opponent — it’s not easy for a mother to say this, but Amy has a serious problem,” Arthur said, adding that “she lies about her past,” and “she’s lied her entire life.”

“Don’t vote for people who lie. Don’t let her become your governor. If you think she’ll make your life better, you’re fooling yourself. It will only get worse.”

Acton’s mother previously accused her of exaggerating or inventing stories about her childhood back in 2020.

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Acton’s campaign initially responded with a statement from Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, blasting Ramaswamy and claiming that her mother was complicit in alleged sexual abuse she faced from her stepfather as a child. They baselessly accused Ramaswamy of an “attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point.”

In a subsequent campaign ad, Stearns appeared on camera, accusing Ramaswamy of turning alleged childhood abuse into a “talking point.” However, Ramaswamy’s campaign simply featured Acton’s mother saying she can’t be trusted to be governor of the state.

Trump responded to the controversy on Wednesday, saying of the alleged abuse, “I just don’t know that,” and slamming the biased media hypocrisy in attacking Republicans over the ad. “You know, if it was about a Republican, I can guarantee you they’d let it go, so that’s why you’re asking. The fact is, I know nothing about it, but I hear the mother went very rogue on the daughter, doesn’t have a lot of respect for the daughter,” Trump said. “It’s a very unusual situation to have a mother hate a daughter that much. But I don’t think that has anything to do with Vivek.”

Vice President Vance also defended the ad on Wednesday, slamming Republicans who are expressing outrage over the clip. “Whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern,” he said, emphasizing the importance of the Ohio elections for Governor and Senator. “I’ve got to be honest, when I see Republicans, people in my party, reacting so strongly, especially elected officials — look, have the opinion you want to have on that ad. If you think it was too tough, say it was too tough. If you think it wasn’t tough enough, say that,” he added. “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.”

While speaking to reporters on Thursday for approximately 12 and a half minutes, the press focused more than one-third of the time fixating on the ad and trying to corner Trump.

Trump responded to the criticisms from the press about Acton’s claims of abuse, emphasizing their hypocrisy. “I know nothing about it. All I know is the mother said very bad things about Acton,” he said.

“And I know one thing: if my mother said bad about me, it would be a major news story. That’s for sure. So, I don’t know what it is, but I guess the mother said very bad things about the one who’s running for governor, and I think you have to take that seriously.”

“If my mother said that about me, it would be — you would have hit gold. You would have been very happy about it,” he told another reporter.

Asked about Iowa Senate Nominee Ashley Hinson’s calls for the ad to be taken down, Trump said, “That’s her opinion. I’m defending it because I know that if that ad were about my mother, you would love it. You would love every inch of it, and what’s happened is the press has teamed up because he’s a Republican, and they’ve tried to make it like it’s a horrible thing.”

“This is a mother saying very bad things about her daughter, and I don’t know why that should be shielded. The only problem is the press has decided to unify and act like it’s a horrible thing. It’s horrible for her,” he added.

Then CNN’s Kaitlan Collins angrily asked Trump, “Why did you make no mention of the sexual abuse allegations that Amy Acton made against her stepfather, who stayed married to her mother?”

“I don’t know the mother. I don’t know her. I never heard of her, until just recently, as somebody running for governor of Ohio,” Trump responded, before CNN’s bias and hypocrisy. “I can tell you this: if my mother ever made those statements, I have a mother, I had a mother who’s up there right now, looking down, Mary McLeod Trump. If she ever made statements like that about me, you and your fake station would have it front row center; you’d love it,” he added, noting that the press has “ganged up” on Amy Acton’s mother.

Trump continued, “If my mother, who loved me, made those statements, you’d be the first one to be broadcasting, and you would have found nothing wrong with them,” as Collins interrupted, saying, “But the child abuse allegation is different.”

Still, Trump did not back down, reminding her, “Amy Acton’s mother said horrible things about Amy Acton, and I don’t know why you’re not allowed to do that, you’re not allowed to broadcast it.”

“The press has ganged up because you hate it, because that one ad should really win. Look, if what the mother said about the daughter is half right, she has no right even running for the governor of Ohio,” he added as Collins and other reporters continued trying to corner him.

“I know one thing: if it were my mother, I’d be fair game, and you know that, and you know that well. You’re trying to help Amy Acton get elected. The press has teamed up to help Amy Acton get elected, and that’s all it is. What the mother said is terrible. From the standpoint that I wouldn’t want somebody like that to be the governor of a great state,” he said before moving on.

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The post WATCH: Trump Spars With Leftwing Media and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Over Amy Acton’s Mother Appearing in Campaign Ad – “If It Were My Mother, I’d be Fair Game!” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.