JD Vance blames DEMS for rape of 10-yr-old Ohio girl, slams Tim Ryan for lax border security
Ohio Republican Senate hopeful JD Vance slammed his Democratic rival Tim Ryan Monday on Monday, October 10, saying a 10-year-old girl who was raped and forced to get an abortion in another state would not have had to go through the ordeal if Democrats had secured the border. "Why was a 10-year-old girl raped in our community, raped in our state in the first place? The thing they never mention is that poor girl was raped by an illegal alien," Vance said during the Ohio Senate debate. "If you had done your job she would have never been raped in the first place," he added.
"Do your job on border security, don't lecture me on opinions I don't actually have," he added. The debate saw Vance and Ryan blasting each other, with Ryan characterizing Vance as a political extremist and a Silicon Valley swindler. Ryan represented the Youngstown area for more than 20 years.
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"Ohio needs an a** kicker, not an a** kisser," Ryan said, referring to Vance's support of former President Donald Trump. Trump said Vance was "kissing my a**" for support at an Ohio rally in September. "We need leaders who have courage to take on their own party - and I've proven that - and he was called an a**kisser by the former president," Ryan said.
Ryan also criticized Vance for repeating Trump's election denial lies, helping fund the insurrectionists' defense, and for campaigning with some members of the Republican Party and supporting them. "Who runs around with Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, who wants to ban books? Who's running around with Lindsey Graham, who wants a national abortion ban? You're running around with Marjorie Taylor Greene who's the absolute looniest politician in America," Ryan told Vance. He added, "That's why I'm running to represent the exhausted majority - Democrats, Republicans, and independents, against the extremists."
Vance, on the other hand, pointed out that Ryan did nothing to help his Rust Belt district. Vance at one point even compared career politicians to "toddlers", saying they "accuse you of doing the very thing that they do themselves all the time." "I'm not going to apologize for spending 20 years of my adult life slogging away to try and help one of the hardest economically hit regions of Ohio. And dedicated my life to help that region come back," Ryan hit back. "D you went off to California, you were drinking wine and eating cheese."
"I admire the spirit of service. What I don't admire is the failure of accomplishment. Look at how Youngstown has done during your leadership. That's what I don't admire," Vance responded.
Most of the first part of the abortion focused on abortion. While Vance said he remained pro-life, Ryan stated he wanted to return the country to Roe v Wade. "He supports a national abortion ban, in which he wants women to have to get a passport and go to Canada," Ryan said. "We've got to have some moderation on this issue. He's got a very extreme position."
"JD you called rape inconvenient, right?" Ryan said. "Rape is not inconvenient, it's a significant tragedy." Ryan was referring to headlines that claimed Vance had said to, although his campaign claimed the Republican's words were taken out of context. "This is the largest governmental overreach in the history of our lifetime," Ryan said of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision.
The men then began speaking on the topic of the girl, 10, who had to travel to Indiana to get an abortion. Gerson Fuentes, an undocumented immigrant, was charged with two counts of rape in connection with the incident. "I had some very personal conversations with women in Ohio, who had gone through tragedies who needed to have abortions for a variety of different reasons," Ryan said. "And I just came to realize through the course of these conversations, that the government has no place in this matter, that this needs to be left to the woman," he added.
Coming to other social issues, Vance said he would vote against legislation that codifies gay marriage because it would open religious institutions to lawsuits. While both candidates supported a loosening of restrictions around weed, Vance said the country must not be "soft on crime".
"A lot of times you'll hear somebody thrown in prison for smoking a joint ... but that's just true on paper," Vance warned. "And if you look at the underlying charge you'll see it wasn't just that they smoked a joint, it's that they smoked a joint and then beat an elderly woman over the head with a pistol." He added, "Those people should go to prison."