CNN’s Erin Burnett was left reeling after President Donald Trump went all in on defending one of the ugliest attack ads of the midterm election season.
On Thursday’s OutFront, Burnett, 50, played Trump’s defense of Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign ad, which features the estranged mother of Amy Acton, Ramaswamy’s Democratic opponent in the Ohio gubernatorial race.
The 60-second ad sees Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, call her daughter a “liar” over her claim that she was raped by her own stepfather as a young girl.
Arthur stood by her husband, Cledith Arthur, who was indicted and charged in 1978 with raping his stepdaughter after Acton’s biological father went to the police. He pleaded not guilty, fled Ohio before trial, and died in 2004 without ever facing trial.
“Acton’s mother is the same woman, the same mother, who fled Ohio along with her husband after a grand jury indicted him for sexually abusing Acton when she was a child,” Burnett said pointedly.
“Yet, this is what the president of the United States said today,” she continued, before playing clips of Trump’s comments earlier Thursday.
“I know nothing about it,” Trump, 80, said while on his way to Iowa. “All I know is the mother said very bad things about Acton, who I guess is running for governor against Vivek, and all I can say is Vivek is great.”
In another clip, Burnett’s CNN colleague, Kaitlan Collins, asks Trump why he hadn’t mentioned the allegations against Acton’s stepfather. Trump said he had “no idea.”
When quizzed on Acton’s accusations against her mother, he added, “Well, when did she make that statement? Was it just recently?” he asked. “All I know is Amy Acton’s mother said horrible things about Amy Acton.”
A stunned Burnett responded, ”That is an unbelievable exchange.”
She then turned to the president’s 400-plus-word Truth Social rant. In the post, Trump brought his late mother into the fight.
“If my mother, the legendary Mary MacLeod Trump, said anything bad about me, the Fake News would play it up,” Trump wrote, a sentiment he repeated when Collins pressed him later in the day.
Burnett read out another line in which, she said, Trump asked, “Who wouldn’t use such an ad? I would.”
“Well, that’s interesting,” she said. “So he just said that he would use an ad where someone whose husband was charged with raping their own daughter when she was under 12. He would use that ad. That’s incredible,” Burnett emphasized.
In the ad, Donna Arthur denies the allegations, calling her daughter a “liar” and unfit for office.
Burnett turned to the growing list of Republicans speaking out against the ad, including Iowa Senate hopeful Ashley Hinson, for whom Trump was campaigning in Iowa on Thursday night. Earlier, she told ABC News it should be taken down.
Burnett showed footage from Trump’s press briefing when Collins, 34, raised Hinson’s objection. Trump shrugged it off: “That’s her opinion.”
“Well, it’s her opinion,” Burnett shot back. “It’s also the opinion of many others, decent people.”
She ticked through the Ohio Republicans who have broken ranks. Gov. Mike DeWine called the ad “deeply troubling,” and Sen. Jon Husted said he would not run it.
“It’s putting Republicans in tight races in uncomfortable positions at a time when millions of people are already voting,” Burnett said, noting nearly 20 million ballots have been cast ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.
“This is what’s become Trump’s closing message,” she added. “With just 12 days before the election, defending an ad and saying that it’s so great he would run it, an ad using someone’s mother who fled the state with her husband after he was charged with raping her daughter.”
The fallout comes as Acton already holds a 7-point lead over Ramaswamy, 50 percent to 43 percent among likely voters, in a Marist poll taken Oct. 15–18.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
