I & I Editorial BoardChances are you have heard plenty about the supposedly over-the-line ad from Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy that consists of a videotaped statement from his opponent Amy Acton’s estranged mother.
But how many know that the Democratic Acton had previously smeared Vivek’s mother? We didn’t, until yesterday.
In the Ramaswamy ad, Acton’s mother says, “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. She is a liar. She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent — none of that is true. She’s lied her entire life.”
Acton’s brother called it “a desperate, disgusting attack [that] reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core: a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants.”
And then a chorus of criticism erupted. Turns out Acton’s mother lost custody of her and her brother after Acton’s stepfather was indicted in 1978 for sexually abusing Acton. So there’s that.
Whatever you think of the ad – and we will admit it’s unseemly – it’s hardly a new low in politics, or the first time a family member has been dragged into a political fight.
As a matter of fact, Acton herself did just that. Only in this case, she didn’t just quote Ramaswamy’s mother. She accused his mother of committing fraud.
Here’s the headline from a press release issued by Acton’s campaign on Aug. 12. “Billionaire Scammer Ramaswamy Used Mother to Manipulate Clinical Trials in ‘Pump and Dump’ Scheme to Make Millions.”
The release goes on to state that “Vivek Ramaswamy will do anything, including shamelessly profiting off Alzheimer’s patients and getting his own mother to manipulate clinical trial data, to make a buck.”
That’s a pretty heinous charge. But when Politifact, a liberal “fact checking” site, looked into it, they concluded that Acton’s claims were “mostly false,” which, given Politifact’s ideological bent, means “completely false.”
The drug in question had shown some promise in an early trial, but failed – as countless drugs do – when it got to Phase 3. There is not a shred of evidence that Ramaswamy did anything illegal or improper.
And the claim that Ramaswamy’s mother “manipulated clinical trial data” is also completely bogus. She and three other co-authors – all of whom identified themselves as working for the drug company – published a paper saying that there was reason to move into Phase 3 trials.
Guess how much news coverage Acton’s smear against Ramasawmy’s mother got at the time?
Try “none.”
The problem here isn’t just the fact that the media flooded the zone with a Democratic talking point in an obvious attempt to influence an election outcome, but that weak-kneed Republicans played along, spending their time and energy attacking Ramaswamy instead of laying out the facts and calling out the media’s double standard.
On Fox this week, Ramaswamy finally said what he – and other Republicans – should have been saying all along.
“I’ll tell you the advice I was raised in: You never start a fight, but if you find yourself in one, you finish it, and you have to stand for what is right and what is true,” he said. “They’ve attacked me. They’ve defamed my mother to media silence. It’s unbelievable. And yet, at the same time, they’ll trot out anything to attack a Republican.”
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
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