GOP rep. says Vance may have just cost himself the presidency

[0:00] Just 12 days ago to the midterms and the battle for power is uglier than ever. [0:04] President Trump and Vice President Vance defending Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican [0:09] candidate for governor in Ohio, as the backlash is intensifying about his controversial attack [0:14] ad. The ad features the estranged mother of Amy Acton, his Democratic opponent for the [0:21] governorship, calling Acton a liar and urging people not to vote for her. What the ad doesn't [0:26] say is that as a 12 year old girl, Acton was removed from her mother's home after her stepfather [0:32] was charged with raping her and her mother stayed married to him. President Trump says he knows [0:37] nothing about the ad, but he weighed in anyway, while Vice President Vance says he's quote [0:43] disgusted, not by the ad, but by Republicans complaining about it. I hear the mother went [0:51] very rogue on the daughter. It doesn't have a lot of respect for the daughter. And I think the mother [0:57] is a witness to things also. Well, I'll be honest with you, whether the ad was appropriate [1:01] or not is not really my concern. But I have to admit that I'm a little bit disgusted when [1:07] I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they [1:12] are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States [1:16] of America. The big question now, will this ad move votes and which way? John. All right. [1:22] With us now, CNN host and political commentator Michael Smirconish. Michael, great to see you this [1:27] morning. This is the latest polling that came out overnight from Fox News of the governor's race [1:30] in Ohio. Basically no clear leader here. Other polls have showed a slightly bigger margin for Amy [1:35] Acton, but this is the state of play right now. I want to play for you what Nancy Mace, Republican [1:42] Congresswoman from South Carolina, had to say not just about Ramaswamy, but about Vice President [1:48] J.D. Vance. This ad is going to go down as the most shameful, disgusting, offensive ad this [1:56] election season. Somehow Vivek Ramaswamy somehow managed to limbo under the lowest bar of decency [2:04] in this country to go after a woman who was allegedly raped by her stepfather and not just like accused, [2:13] this guy was arrested and charged with child rape. And the idea that the vice president would go to [2:21] the mattresses to defend this ad might have cost J.D. Vance the presidency. [2:26] It's that last part, Michael, I want to focus on first there. The Ramaswamy ad has been out for a day. [2:33] People have been talking about it. But J.D. Vance now not just leaning in, but wrapping himself in that ad. [2:40] I wonder what you think the political impact of that might be significant. I think it's going to [2:47] follow him with regard to the ad. When I first saw it yesterday, I said on radio that it was political [2:52] malpractice to run it. It weaponizes a child's sex abuse. And it also preys upon an elderly woman [3:01] whose wellness I question. If you saw it in a vacuum, I mean, I'm trying to be fair here, but it's [3:07] hard. If you saw it in a vacuum and you didn't know the background facts, I don't know, maybe it moves [3:11] the needle. You at least would would question the veracity of Amy Acton. The moment you know what [3:18] the background facts are, you see it for what it is. It's just despicable. Axios reported that [3:24] the Ramaswamy campaign was showing it to persuadable voters with a positive result. I can only imagine [3:31] that they didn't tell them that for 47 years, the quote unquote mother has been estranged from the [3:38] daughter. It's repulsive. And the idea that we're talking about this 12 days out, not a good thing [3:43] for Republicans, certainly not a good thing for Ramaswamy. Again, I just want to remind people [3:49] the state we're talking about here. This is Ohio, a state that that President Trump won by, you know, [3:55] almost 12 points against Kamala Harris two years ago. He's going back to Ohio. The reports are next week [4:02] when the president is in Ohio. What are the chances this is all gone? Or is this now 12 days [4:07] of stink left in Iowa? I mean, Ohio, I should say. Well, who knows what's to come, right? There's [4:15] still there's still time on the clock for other incidents like this to drop. But to the extent [4:20] that the vice president or president stepped foot in Ohio between now and the conclusion of the midterm, [4:26] of course, it's going to come up. The president's initial instinct was the correct one when he tried to [4:31] distance himself and say, I don't know anything about it. Then he made the mistake of saying [4:36] things that showed that he had awareness of exactly what was going on here. But with regard [4:40] to the vice president, you know, a smart guy, by all accounts, I just don't understand why he would [4:47] embrace this. And you're not going to run from it because there's a lot of video and it's the sort [4:51] of thing that's going to come up well into the future, in my opinion. Joining me now, CNN political [4:56] analyst, White House correspondent for The New York Times, Zolan Kano-Youngs, and Kate Santoli's [5:00] congressional reporter for Axios. It's good to see you guys. Zolan, this now moves beyond [5:05] Ramaswamy. What is the deal with J.D. Vance and his approach, do you think, to this? [5:12] Yeah, I mean, when you heard those comments yesterday, you can almost sort of think here [5:17] that the vice president was taking a lead from the strategy that President Trump has exemplified [5:25] so many times of thinking that you just can't back down no matter the issue when faced with widespread [5:31] criticism from the media, from outside stakeholders, from Democrats. But the thing here is this is [5:38] different. This isn't just facing widespread criticism from Democrats in the media. You do [5:44] have bipartisan criticism over an issue that, you know, our politics is a it's a cold business in [5:50] the U.S., but you still think there's some issues that would require putting politics aside and just [5:56] saying this is this is off base and a personal history of family history that involves sex abuse [6:04] you would think would be one of those. But but apparently it's not for them for this White House. [6:09] And again, this the Ramaswamy campaign running this ad has prompted broad widespread criticism, [6:16] not just among Democrats, but also among Republicans. You highlighted Senator John Huston's quote. [6:22] There was also an official who ran in the primary against Ramaswamy, who is further to the right, [6:27] who has come out, distanced himself from this ad as well. You're seeing criticism among Republicans [6:34] in Ohio and more broadly nationally among many Republicans as well. Yeah. And Kate, [6:40] to what someone's hitting at right here, Axios is reporting that Vance, with the way he's responding [6:45] to this and approaching this, is setting the tone for his 2028 run with a defiant take on that ad. [6:52] That never back down is part of his 28 mindset as he thinks too many Republicans sacrifice allies to [7:00] make controversies go away. What do you think that could mean for 2028? What else is Axios picking up [7:06] here? I mean, it definitely is clear that he's running the groundwork. He's laying the groundwork for [7:13] a 2028 run, you know, heavily defending Ramaswamy here, telling Republicans how they should be thinking [7:19] about this and instead focusing on winning this race and focusing on how important it is to back the [7:24] vague here instead of complaining about this. And, you know, he is taking a note out of President [7:29] Trump's notebook and just going all in on defending the Republican rather than acknowledging that maybe, [7:34] you know, some of the Republicans who have come out and called the ad disgusting, like Nancy [7:37] Mace or said they wouldn't have done it, like Republican Senator John Husted instead going full [7:42] in on that. And, you know, it's really interesting that we've seen this divide here within the Republican [7:46] Party just two weeks out from Election Day, a lot of backlash to this ad overall. And it's also [7:52] interesting that, you know, we've seen Republicans not just in Ohio but in other states kind of go [7:57] ugly and go personally attacking a lot of Democratic opponents here, which shows maybe they're not [8:02] coming from a position of strength and they're worried about a lot of these races. [8:05] I do want to start with this Amy Acton ad and the decision of the vice president to defend it as, [8:13] in his words, the truth. The ad obscures the fact that the woman in the ad had her children taken [8:22] away from her because her husband was sexually abusing her daughter. How is that disqualifying for [8:29] Ramaswamy? And perhaps, I mean, if it's disqualifying for Ramaswamy, is it disqualifying for the vice [8:35] president? No, I think it's a gross ad on a moral level and wrong. On a political level, [8:42] I don't know how you can argue that this was smart. And to have the closing message of your opponent, [8:48] you know, framed in such a way, I don't see a defense of it. And the vice president defending [8:55] it? I mean, he is defending it. I mean, that's the part I'm confused by. I think at least when it [9:01] comes to the president's comments, it seemed he was doing more of the classic Trump, like, [9:04] observing the situation from afar and describing it. But, you know, I think that the Republicans [9:09] were looking at this and saying, you know, this is wrong. You know, we're not going to put ourselves [9:13] in a position to defend it. You've seen some in Ohio doing that. I mean, to me, that puts you on the [9:19] right side going into the final two weeks of this election. You know, according to the VP, though, [9:22] you're one of the whiny Republicans. Because he went further than that. He actually not only [9:27] was sort of tacitly endorsing it. But then he said anyone who's a Republican who complains about it [9:34] is just whining and not really doing the work of a Republican in order to get another Republican [9:39] elected. So, you know, I think actually not only is the ad itself morally repugnant, as you have [9:46] rightly said, political malpractice also. But beyond that, what you're seeing is the vice president of [9:53] the United States, who is one of the leaders of his party, then actually attacking other Republicans. [9:59] That is not a good closing message. I think it's also like, when did child rape and family [10:05] abuse become part of the GOP playbook? Like, is the Republican Party really supposed to be fine [10:10] with child rape or using it like weaponizing a woman's childhood abuse for political gain? That [10:15] seems so sick. It seems so obvious. It seems like everyone should answer the way you have answered. And yet, [10:20] there are a number of people who are taking the complete other route. Like, [10:24] this woman allowed this horrible thing to happen to her daughter and her children were rightly taken [10:28] away from her. She hasn't seen her mother since that day she was in the courtroom when she was taken [10:32] away from her mom. And Vivek Ramaswamy's team finds her, digs her up, and re-traumatizes his political [10:37] candidate for what? Political points? It's gross. So, Ben Shapiro says this. Vivek Ramaswamy's ad [10:44] is apparently unprecedented. It would be just awful to activate all the members of a politician's [10:50] family to attack them, as the Democrats did with every member of RFK's family. That seems like a [10:58] straight-up false equivalency. These are not the same thing. Excuse me, I sound like RFK when I spoke [11:04] there. RFK Jr. is a public figure. His family members are public figures. They are associated with one [11:12] another. And he's a member of the President's Cabinet. This is a candidate for United States [11:19] Senate. Her mother, she hasn't spoken to since she was 12 years old. She's a private citizen. They [11:24] have a personal issue because her mother was helping to support her father, the man, excuse me, her [11:31] stepfather, who sexually abused her. How can you compare that to a family squabble among the elite [11:38] Kennedys? It's just not even close to being comparable. And I think it's sad that Republicans, [11:43] I'm so glad that Peter's standing up on this, and I assume that Scott will too, but I just think it's [11:49] sad that Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are doubling down on this message at the last two weeks of a [11:56] campaign when people don't care about these divisive issues. They care about jobs and health care and gas [12:03] prices. I also think, I mean, look, we know that Ramaswamy and J.D. Vance are very close and personally [12:10] and politically, but at the same time, there was another option available to the Vice President, [12:15] which is to not address at that rally, right? It's one thing if a reporter asks you, he decided at a rally [12:23] to minimize the allegations that are at the center of that ad. He chose to do that. That's a very [12:32] surprising choice. And I wonder what that says about him to you. Yeah, he could have just ignored it. [12:40] You know, I mean, campaigns make decisions, surrogates come in and campaign for them. I'm sure [12:44] not all surrogates agree with all the decisions that are made by all the campaigns they support. [12:49] So you could have just ignored it. This issue of whining, I took some issue with that today because [12:57] I don't see people whining about this. I think they are warning about this. There's a heck of a lot of [13:02] Republicans in Ohio and elsewhere who would love to see a Republican get elected governor of Ohio, [13:07] who do not believe that this is a defensible ad, nor do they believe it's a good strategy. [13:13] So whether you take it from the moral view or you take it just from the political strategy view, [13:17] there's a lot of concern. That's not whining. That's warning. And so I don't think it's necessarily [13:24] a good idea in a race that is on a knife's edge in a state that's very close, where no one really [13:29] knows what's going to happen. Sort of taking shots at people who, you know, just simply have an [13:34] opinion about how a campaign should be run or the choices that a campaign should make. [13:38] I don't think that's a particularly good idea. And so I know there's some people out there who [13:42] want to say, you know, politics ain't beanbagged, whatever. And there will be people that debate [13:46] campaign decisions. This is not whining. From what I've heard from my people in Ohio, it's warning [13:53] that this may have actually been a backfire. It's going to blow up in their face. [13:56] There's some CNN reporting that suggests that Republicans in the state, according to one [14:02] operative, couldn't be more pissed at Robinson for dropping this on their laps two weeks before [14:08] the midterms. One thing to remember about these issues, whenever a campaign makes a decision and [14:11] you've been out there as a surrogate or you've been helping them or you're knocking on doors or [14:14] whatever you're doing in that campaign, now you own it. Now you got to answer for it because it's what [14:19] people want to talk about. And I'll guarantee you there are people that don't want to talk about this [14:22] when they're out wanting to talk about, you know, other state issues.