00:00President, on the Ramaswamy ads, sir, Republicans like Ashley Hinson, who you were with last night in Iowa, are denouncing
00:07the ads.
00:07Well, they can't, but they don't know the facts.
00:09Look, this is a mother that went on the air to say that her daughter, who's running for governor of
00:16the great state of Ohio, that I won in a record all three times.
00:20I got the record vote, the highest vote ever.
00:22So I know it well.
00:23I love the people.
00:24A mother is saying, don't put my daughter there because she's a terrible person and she's a liar.
00:32Why shouldn't somebody use that?
00:34But do the sexual abuse allegations mean nothing to you, sir?
00:36Let me ask you, if my mother said, Steve, wait, wait, wait, wait, slow down.
00:41Who are you with?
00:42Who are you with?
00:43I'm with NBC, sir.
00:44What are the worst networks you have?
00:46But there are very serious sexual abuse allegations.
00:49Quiet.
00:50They make no difference to you?
00:52Isn't she a fresh person?
00:53You're a horrible little reporter, aren't you?
00:56If my mother said bad things about me, do you think the Democrats would put it up?
01:02I think so.
01:03But my mother thought I was wonderful.
01:05Thank you, mom.
01:06My mother would never, even if she thought them, she would never say, this is a person, a mother, a
01:12smart woman.
01:13I watch smart women.
01:15She said her daughter is a disaster.
01:17Her daughter is a liar.
01:19And she felt that she had an obligation.
01:21And she also said her daughter lied about her opponent, which is Vivek, Rameshwamy.
01:28If I had that ad, I should be so lucky to have an ad like that.
01:31Why wouldn't you listen to a mother that says that?
01:34Why?
01:34Why wouldn't you, Miss NBC?
01:36Why wouldn't you listen?
01:38Wait a minute.
01:38Quiet.
01:38You have, I don't know anything about a stepfather.
01:42All you have, but this one just keeps talking.
01:451978, sir.
01:46You just keep talking.
01:48I'm answering you, sir.
01:48You have, I don't know anything about stepfathers.
01:51From many, many years ago.
01:53I know that recently a mother got on television and said that her daughter should not be governor
02:00of Ohio.
02:02And she said, I love my daughter, but my daughter lies all the time and lied about her opponent.
02:08And I can't watch it.
02:09And the mother got up.
02:10This has nothing to do with a stepfather or anything else.
02:13This has to do with the fact that a woman got out, the mother of a person running for governor
02:20of one of the greatest states, where I set records and said that she's a liar.
02:26Her daughter's a liar.
02:28She said her daughter lied about Vivek and the mother couldn't take it anymore.
02:32She basically said her daughter should not, that's what she said, her daughter should not
02:37be the governor of Ohio.
02:39To me, that's something that's very much fair game.
02:42Julie, the president, even comparing Amy Acton's estranged mother to his own mother,
02:48a comparison I'm not sure he understands that he's making there.
02:52But in Iowa, the Republican Senate candidate, Ashley Hinson, she condemned the ad.
02:56Talk to us about how this could play out in races, obviously, beyond Ohio.
03:00This is now a national story.
03:01This attack ad, it's just such, I don't recall an attack ad of this magnitude, to be quite
03:07frank, and it is now a national story.
03:08It's a national story, Christine, and one the president is insistent on continuing to
03:13breathe oxygen into.
03:14I'm curious about how this will expand beyond Ohio as well.
03:18And I think, first, the president keeps saying, and I think it's so transparent, that the main
03:23reason why he encouraged Vivek Ramaswamy to keep this ad up, encouraged this ad to move
03:28forward, and basically praised it is because he kept saying, well, what if it was me?
03:32What if it was my own mother?
03:34What would the press be saying then?
03:36Accusing, as Garrett pointed out, our colleague Monica Alba, who did a fantastic job pressing
03:40him over and over again, essentially saying that Democrats would run with this if this
03:44was switched.
03:45But as to how this could have impacts beyond Ohio, it's notable Ashley Hinson, other women,
03:50and not just women, by the way, but Republican lawmakers, including Ohio's governor, speaking
03:54out, saying it should be taken out, taken down, rather.
03:57And I'm curious to see how women react to this ad, specifically suburban women.
04:03We know that the issue of sexual assault, of being transparent, for example, unrelated,
04:08but kind of related, the Epstein files has been a huge issue in a bunch of campaigns,
04:14in particular in Ohio campaign ads running mostly from Democrats, but also for some Republicans
04:18on that issue.
04:19And it's such a key voting bloc.
04:21I think the story is not over in terms of how this may backfire against Ramaswamy as well.
04:44It's about 20,000 people.
