Vice President JD Vance used a Wednesday press conference about government waste and abuse to defend billionaire Republican Vivek Ramaswamy from criticism over a sickening campaign ad targeting Ohio governor candidate Amy Acton. Acton is the Democratic opponent running against Ramaswamy.

The ad featured Acton’s estranged mother attacking her own daughter and calling her a liar. Acton’s mother had lost custody of Acton and her brother because of her complicity in Acton’s childhood sexual abuse.

That history made the decision to feature Acton’s estranged mother especially grotesque. Yet when Vance was directly asked whether the ad was appropriate, he showed little interest in addressing what Ramaswamy’s campaign had done.

“Do you think that that ad was appropriate?” one reporter asked. It was a straightforward question about an extraordinary campaign tactic.

“Well, I’ll be honest with you,” Vance began. “Whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern.”

With that answer, Vance brushed aside the central question surrounding the ad. Rather than reckon with the use of Acton’s estranged mother and the painful circumstances behind their relationship, he quickly shifted attention toward helping Ramaswamy win.

Vance then turned his response into an attack on Acton and an appeal to his fellow Republicans in Ohio. His concern, by his own account, was not whether the ad crossed a line, but whether Republicans believed Acton should become governor.

“So I would say to Ohio Republicans: Do you actually think that Amy Acton is unfit to serve as governor of the state of Ohio? I do.”

The vice president did not leave his defense of Ramaswamy inside the press conference. He later appeared at a rally near Cincinnati, where he continued attacking Acton and defending the television commercial that had dragged the Ohio governor’s race to a new low.

At the rally, Vance portrayed criticism of the ad as an obsession among Democrats in Ohio. He also praised Ramaswamy for airing it, treating the billionaire Republican’s decision to feature Acton’s estranged mother as an act of political courage rather than something requiring scrutiny.

“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.”

The remark amounted to Vance tripling down on the attack. First, he declared that the appropriateness of the ad was not his concern, then he attacked Acton’s fitness for office, and finally he celebrated Ramaswamy’s decision to broadcast the commercial.

The episode comes as Republicans face an increasingly bleak election outlook. Rather than stepping back from an ad built around Acton’s estranged mother and her deeply painful family history, Vance and Ramaswamy appear determined to keep displaying their MAGA loyalty through ever more desperate political attacks.

Ramaswamy has already experienced how disposable that loyalty can be. Only a couple of years ago, the MAGA leader he sought to impress threw him under the bus, according to the source account.

Vance’s conduct is even less surprising because his willingness to abandon any appearance of principle has become central to the criticism surrounding him. Faced with a clear opportunity to say whether the ad was appropriate, he instead announced that the question was not really his concern.

Nothing in Vance’s answer addressed why Acton’s estranged mother appeared in the commercial or the circumstances under which she lost custody of Acton and her brother. He simply redirected the conversation toward defeating Acton and electing Ramaswamy.

That choice was not confined to an offhand answer during a press conference. By repeating the attack at the rally near Cincinnati and praising the commercial, Vance made his position unmistakable.

For Vance, the ugliness of the tactic took a back seat to partisan advantage. His defense of Ramaswamy showed just how quickly questions of decency can be discarded when MAGA power and Republican victory are on the line.