Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Republican Vivek Ramaswamy has defended a campaign advertisement featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic rival, Dr Amy Acton, in the closely watched race for Ohio governor, according to a report by the Press Trust of India.
Ramaswamy said the advertisement, in which Acton’s mother calls her “a liar”, had nothing to do with the abuse Acton faced during her childhood.
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“The irony is they are lying about an ad that is about lying,” Ramaswamy said at a campaign stop in northeast Ohio on Friday. “They are changing the subject because they do not want to answer for their own failures.”
The advertisement features Acton’s birth mother, Donna Arthur, criticising her and suggesting that she has mental health issues. Arthur lost custody of her children after her husband, the children’s stepfather, was charged with raping Acton.
Acton, a former Ohio public health director, has spoken openly about facing homelessness and abuse as a child. She condemned Ramaswamy over the advertisement.
“I will not normalise somebody who has said that my childhood is just something I am complaining about,” she told Spectrum News, an Ohio cable news outlet.
A message seeking comment was sent to Acton’s campaign on Friday, PTI reported.
The advertisement has drawn significant reactions, including from President Donald Trump, who said it was like “hitting pay dirt”.
At a campaign rally in Iowa on Thursday, Trump said Ramaswamy had called him for advice. “You have got to ride with it,” Trump recalled telling Ramaswamy, a biotechnology billionaire and former presidential candidate. Trump also said he was jealous that he did not have such a strong advertisement to use during his own campaigns.
Other Republicans have criticised the advertisement. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine called on Ramaswamy to withdraw it. “It is wrong to run this ad,” DeWine said on Thursday.
According to police and court documents obtained by The Associated Press, Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged in July 1978 with raping his stepdaughter, who was then 12, after Acton’s biological father reported him to the authorities. The alleged abuse took place between December 1976 and April 1978.
Cledith Arthur pleaded not guilty. A grand jury indicted him that September, but he failed to appear at a court hearing and remained a fugitive until at least 1981. He has since died.
Ramaswamy has maintained that the advertisement is about Acton’s honesty and not her childhood abuse, while Acton and some Republicans, including DeWine, have criticised it.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
