THURSDAY: There's nobody like Vice President Vance!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2026

Unless it's President Trump: Vivek Ramaswamy's gruesome ad has shown us how low things can go in this, the era of the sitting president.   

We'll extend credit to those who have known what to do about the gruesome ad. Here is Ohio's two-term (Republican) governor, Mike DeWine, speaking to reporters today, with tape at Mediaite:

 DEWINE (10/21/26): The ad, on its face, is deeply, deeply troubling. But when you know the rest of the story, when you know the backstory, when you know that the husband of the mom was indicted by a grand jury after hearing testimony, and then he took off along with the mother, and the children never saw, I guess, the mother after—when you know that, it just, to me, makes it more serious. It makes it just more wrong. 

So it’s wrong to run this ad. And even at this late time, my friend saw the ad run this morning on TV. I would just urge the Ramaswamy campaign to take this down. It’s just—it's just wrong.  

So the sitting governor has said. Meanwhile, Mika Brzezinski was superb again on Morning Joe, describing the ad as "arguably the most depraved, monstrous and evil ad in American politics," and as "a chilling act of depravity." 

Perhaps the strangest assessments have come from Vice President Vance, speaking yesterday in Cincinnati and then a bit later in Sharonville, Ohio. Here was his statement in Cincy, delivered right around noon:

VANCE (10/21/26): Whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern. What is my concern is who's going to govern the next generation of American government. Who is going to win the Senate race in the state of Ohio. Who's going to win the governor's race in the state of Ohio.

And I got to be honest that, 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.   

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.  

If you think the ad wasn't tough enough, you should simply say it?  

Citoyens, please! This isn't a question of how "tough" the ad was. It's a question of the fact that the ad was grossly misleading concerning a series of sexual assaults committed against the Democratic candidate for governor when she was as young as nine years old. 

Concerning Vance, is there anything he won't say? Later, and astoundingly, he even said this:   

VANCE (10/21/26): The media, and the Democrats in the state of Ohio, are obsessed because—guess what? 

Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar. And my message, ladies and gentlemen, is very simple. Whatever you think of any of the TV advertisements, focus on the substance and focus on the facts.

Ramaswamy had the audacity to call it out like it is—to call Amy Acton a liar? It won't be easy to solve our nation's ongoing crisis of values.  

The sitting president's slippery statement wasn't a whole lot better. To see these disordered men as they defend Ramaswamy's behavior, you can just click here.

UPDATE: According to the sitting president, the ad is true all the way down.