00:01President Donald Trump says Vivek Ramaswamy should not take down a controversial campaign ad featuring his opponent's mother, who claims
00:08she's lying to voters about childhood abuse.
00:11And I say that she's fair game.
00:14Plus, Corey Lewandowski, one of former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's top aides, is under investigation by the Justice Department, suspected
00:22of using his position for financial gain.
00:24And Ukraine's access to Starlink has been mostly restored, but President Trump refuses to say whether he made it happen,
00:32the stories that matter, the facts you can trust from across the country to around the world. This is unbiased
00:43updates from straight arrow. Hey everybody, I'm Christian Bryant. It's Friday, October 23rd. Thank you so much for joining us.
00:51Let's get you caught up and ready for the day ahead.
00:53We begin with a big shift on a controversial campaign ad. President Donald Trump now says Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican
01:00running for governor of Ohio, should keep running a contentious ad against Democrat Amy Acton, despite calls from both sides
01:08of the aisle to take it down.
01:09Remember this from yesterday?
01:11The fact is, I know nothing about it, but I hear the mother went very rogue on the daughter. It
01:17doesn't have a lot of respect for the daughter. It's a very unusual situation to have a mother hate a
01:23daughter that much, but I don't think that has anything to do with Vivek.
01:27That was Trump's initial reaction when asked about the ad, which features Acton's long estranged mother calling her daughter a
01:34liar and urging Ohioans not to vote for her. But here's what Trump said when asked about the ad again
01:40on Thursday.
01:40All I know is Amy Acton's father said horrible things about Amy Acton, calling her a liar and other things
01:47and unreliable, a lot of very bad things. And I say that she's fair game.
01:54He doubled down in a post on Truth Social saying Ramaswamy should keep running the ad. Trump said, quote, who
02:00wouldn't use such an ad? I would. It's called hitting pay dirt. He also blasted Ohio's governor, Mike DeWine, calling
02:07him a rhino, a Republican in name only after DeWine joined calls for the ad to be taken down, calling
02:13it deeply troubling.
02:15So it's wrong to run this ad. And even at this late time, my wife friend saw the ad run
02:21this morning on on TV. I would just urge Ramaswamy campaign to take this down. It's just it's just it's
02:32just wrong.
02:33DeWine stopped short of pulling support for Ramaswamy, though, saying he'll continue to endorse the whole Republican ticket. Acton says
02:40she was sexually abused as a child by her mother's second husband.
02:44He was indicted on assault charges, but never stood trial after skipping bail. A court terminated her mother's parental rights,
02:51and the women have not spoken or seen each other in almost five decades.
02:55The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into Corey Lewandowski, a former special government employee who was an advisor
03:03to former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
03:06Prosecutors are looking into the role Lewandowski played in awarding certain government contracts and made money off those contracts.
03:14This investigation follows an inquiry by the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General into a $220 million contract for ads
03:22that featured Noem encouraging immigrants to self-deport.
03:25But according to NBC News, the investigation expanded to include whether Lewandowski sought payment in exchange for protecting and growing
03:33the interests of a company that was seeking additional government contracts not related to the ad campaign.
03:39Lewandowski is a former political advisor to Trump serving as his campaign manager for part of the 2016 presidential race.
03:46When reporters asked Trump about the investigation, he said he didn't know much about it, but is all for weeding
03:52out dishonest people in his administration.
03:54No, I don't know about it. I mean, I heard something about it, but I don't know exactly what it
03:58is. All I know is I want my people to be honest. And if they're not going to be honest,
04:03they have to be prosecuted. I don't know about specifically, but because I view it, people are not honest. They're
04:09stealing from me. As president, they're stealing from me. So I want my people to be honest. And if they're
04:15not honest, I'll have my DOJ go and do whatever they have to do.
04:19Lewandowski, who served as one of Noam's top advisors until she was ousted in March, denies any wrongdoing.
04:26The Justice Department has asked an appeals court to block California from counting mail-in ballots for more than 20
04:32,000 voters, at least for now. The DOJ made the request on Thursday, saying it can't wait until next week
04:38for a lower court judge to rule in its lawsuit challenging the eligibility of those voters.
04:43The Department had originally asked U.S. District Judge David Carter to make a decision by yesterday afternoon, but he
04:50scheduled a hearing in the case for next week.
04:52The Justice Department is seeking to block California from counting mail-in ballots from voters the Trump administration suspects of
04:59not being U.S. citizens. California officials say there's no proof these voters aren't eligible.
05:05And with the November 3rd midterm elections now less than two weeks away, the Justice Department told the appeals court
05:11it interpreted Carter's lack of ruling as a constructive denial of its request, according to NBC News.
05:18Meanwhile, Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters on Thursday he won't rule out trying to stop states from certifying mail
05:24-in votes after the elections.
05:26Yes, of course, there's scenarios that we could all come up with, hypothetically, you know, some doomsday scenario, for example,
05:32right? It is not DOJ's intention to, and it's never our intention, to improperly interfere with elections or the state
05:39confirmation process or certification process.
05:41But, you know, to say that there's no circumstances that we would ever do that, of course, I'm not going
05:45to say that. But am I planning my days around the election to be somewhere to not certify? Of course
05:52not. No.
05:53California is one of eight states, along with the District of Columbia, that have what are known as all-mail
05:58voting systems. Voting by mail has frequently been a target for President Trump as he continues to push his unproven
06:05claims of widespread voter fraud in U.S. elections, even though that's how he casts most of his ballots in
06:11his home state of Florida.
06:13Ukraine's access to Star Shield has been restored reportedly after a call from President Trump to Elon Musk. Both the
06:20U.S. and Ukraine officials told the Wall Street Journal that Star Shield, the military-grade version of Starlink, is
06:26now, quote, working more normally after speeds were throttled last week. This limited Ukraine's ability to fend off attacks from
06:33Russia.
06:33But some Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, say the service is still not as fast as usual. Trump administration
06:41officials told the Journal that the president called Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX, operates Starlink, and asked him to restore
06:48Kyiv's access to the military satellite system.
06:51But on Thursday, Trump wouldn't confirm whether he stepped in on behalf of Ukraine.
06:56Yeah, I don't want to comment on it. Whether I called or whether somebody else called doesn't make any difference.
07:02I guess the bottom line, he put it back.
07:04Trump has denied being behind the initial decision to restrict Ukraine's Star Shield capabilities and said he didn't know whether
07:10Musk was behind it. The service was slowed as tensions grow between Trump and Zelensky over Ukrainian attacks on Russian
07:17oil production facilities.
07:19He was the captain of a spaceship under attack in Alien and Tom Cruise's commanding officer in Top Gun.
07:26Actor Tom Skerritt, whose Hollywood career spanned more than six decades, has died. He was 93 years old.
07:32Skerritt, who served in the U.S. Air Force before he became an actor, began his acting career by appearing
07:38alongside Robert Redford in the 1962 drama War Hunt.
07:42He later appeared in the film Steel Magnolias and found success on the small screen, starring as Sheriff Jimmy Brock
07:48in the TV drama Picket Fences from 1992 to 1996.
07:52That was a role that earned him an Emmy. He made his Broadway debut in 2013, starring in the stage
07:58adaptation of John Grisham's A Time to Kill at 80 years old.
08:03His family says Skerritt passed away Wednesday from natural causes.
08:08Finally this morning, former President Barack Obama returns to the campaign trail Saturday, this time hoping to boost two Democratic
08:15candidates in Michigan.
08:16Obama will appear on behalf of gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson and Abdul El-Sayed, who's running for an open Senate
08:24seat.
08:24The former president has appeared in dozens of campaign ads for Democrats this cycle, but is now making a direct
08:30appeal to voters in a tight race.
08:33El-Sayed holds a narrow lead in polling against Republican Mike Rogers.
08:37As the campaign has progressed, El-Sayed has faced some tough questions, but he's answered with some questions of his
08:43own. Take a listen.
08:44I have one question. Will you disavow the most?
08:47Sure. Yeah, absolutely. But I want to ask the question that you're asking. Why are you asking the question?
08:52Well, because they're a terrorist group.
08:55Okay. No, no, but what are you implying? Do you assume that I wouldn't?
09:00Yes.
09:01Why not?
09:01Because I have not heard you disavow them yet.
09:03Have you disavowed them? I haven't heard you disavow them yet.
09:05I disavow them.
09:06Do you? Great.
09:07Earlier this week, I asked Straight Arrow senior politics reporter Ozzy Pabra about El-Sayed's rhetorical style on the campaign
09:14trail.
09:15There has been a lot of questions thrown at him that he, by his nature, seems to think are illegitimate.
09:22So rather than answering the question that he gets asked, he takes it as an opportunity to question the person
09:31posing him the question and basically saying,
09:34Why are you asking me that? Come out and just say the thing that you're implying.
09:39It is fascinating.
09:40He's making them come out and say what it is that's behind their question.
09:44And it's not something that we're seeing a lot of on the campaign trail.
09:48You can catch my full conversation with Ozzy on the free version of Offscript, available on YouTube or Spotify,
09:54or become a premium subscriber and watch the full episode on SAN.com or the app.
10:01Folks, we're the fastest, fairest few minutes in news.
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10:15Before we go, get in touch, folks.
10:17Email me.
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10:20Unbiased Updates at SAN.com.
10:23Let me know what you think or just say hello.
10:25That's Unbiased Updates for this Friday.
10:27For the Unbiased Updates team and all of us at Straight Arrow, I'm Christian Bryant.
10:32Thanks so much for joining us.
10:33We'll see you again next week.
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