'Anyone ever seen him?' Ramaswamy roasted for fumbling answer on Ohio valley he's visiting

Republican businessman and Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is once again facing criticism and mockery for remarks that cast doubt on his authenticity.

Ramaswamy, an ally of Trump who ran for president alongside him in 2024 and helped him craft the Department of Government Efficiency project, was born in Cincinnati — but had constantly faced accusations he doesn't have a solid connection to the state, buttressed by his recently resurfaced comments in 2023 that Ohio is "a good state" but "I can't say it's the best state."

His latest remarks, captured and posted to X by the youth supporter account for his Democratic opponent Amy Acton, stem from an interview he was giving while visiting the Mahoning Valley, in the northeast corner of the state along the Pennsylvania border, where he was asked about his favorite part of the area, and listed a national park an hour's drive outside of it.

"I just want to know what your favorite place around this area is to come by to stop here?" said the interviewer in the clip.

"You know, look, I love long drives, right?" said Ramaswamy. "You think about the time we spent in Trumbull County, you think about the time we even spend just going for a nice jog. You think about Cuyahoga National Park, not far from where we are. I'm a nature guy."

A number of commenters reacted with derision, with some pointing out that he goes most places in a private jet, not "long drives," and others noting that the self-proclaimed "nature guy" completely missed Mill Creek Park and Mosquito Lake State Park, both of which are actually in the Mahoning Valley.

"Vivek Ramaswamy is asked what his favorite place in the Mahoning Valley is, clearly has no answer and word-salad’s his way into saying Cuyahoga National Park is his favorite place in Youngstown lol," said the Students for Amy Acton account.

"OK for real tho has anyone ever seen him out and about in Ohio. Just out shopping or whatever," wrote Rachel Coyle, co-founder of the civic group How Things Work Ohio.

A grand jury in Oklahoma uncovered evidence that Gov. Kevin Stitt pulled strings behind the scenes to get a political donor released early from prison, KOSU reported on Friday.

"In 2023, Sara Polston was driving in Norman with a blood alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit. While traveling 66 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone, she crashed into another car, grievously injuring a 20-year-old woman," said the report. "Late last year, Polston was sentenced to eight years in prison and seven years on probation. But after just 73 days in prison, she was released as part of an electronic monitoring program that uses GPS to track offenders."

"The grand jury has spent months figuring out how and why that happened, as first reported in The Oklahoman," the report continued. "They found that Stitt called the interim director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to discuss other matters, but brought up Polston’s pre-sentence investigation process. Stitt knows Polston and her husband, Rod, who is an attorney and owns a tax firm in Norman."

While the grand jury did not find any criminal wrongdoing in the arrangement, they concluded by blasting “this rank political favoritism, particularly on a crime that nearly took the life of a 20-year-old young woman."

Stitt was elected as a hard-right MAGA candidate but has, in recent years, fostered disagreements with President Donald Trump and come under heavy fire as a result of this revelation.

"Shameful. Stitt’s no better than Trump. Sara Polston drove drunk and almost killed an innocent driver. She served 73 days of her 8-year sentence before her buddy Stitt called in a favor and got her released," wrote Jena Nelson, a Democratic congressional candidate for Oklahoma's 5th District. "When we put the ultra-rich in charge, they only care about protecting and further enriching themselves — everyone else be d---ed."

"It’s essential to our democracy that we elect more working class people and get big money out of politics," she added.

New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman delivered a blunt assessment of one of the GOP favorites to win the Republican nomination for president in 2028.

"What is going to happen in the next couple of years will impact whether JD Vance becomes president," Haberman said during an appearance on CNN on Friday. "His fate is tied to President Trump."

CNN anchor Kasie Hunt was asking Haberman for her input after Secretary of State Marco Rubio found himself in the discussion of possible 2028 candidates. Hunt said that "there is this shadow campaign going on between him and JD Vance," noting that Vance was in Iowa earlier in the week while Rubio was in the spotlight with the Pope.

"I don't think that Rubio is doing much to try to engage in a shadow campaign," Haberman countered. "Clearly, there are a lot of people who would like to see Marco Rubio run. I don't know that he is among them."

The way Haberman sees it, it's "the vice president's nomination to lose at the end of the day," and she pointed out that Trump's popularity is "ticking down" even though "he is still overwhelmingly popular among Republicans," she said.

"Vance is still an incredibly well-known figure," Haberman said. "He is much more popular with the base than almost anyone else I can think of who would be running right now."

She said Trump's declining popularity is already a disadvantage for Republicans heading into the midterms. "Right now, it's bad," she stressed. With enough donors, Vance can have a "structural advantage," but "what they're not at an advantage toward is President Trump's popularity."

Washington Post readers launched a wave of criticism Friday after the Jeff Bezos-owned publication published a Mother's Day column attributed to Melania Trump.

Titled "Mothers are America's strength," the piece prompted hundreds of comments expressing skepticism about authorship, with readers questioning if President Donald Trump wrote the column instead.

Critics raised concerns about the publication's credibility, given Melania's reported $28 million payment from Bezos for the box office flop "Melania" documentary. Commenters also expressed dissatisfaction with the Trump administration's policies on family support, healthcare, and immigration, while questioning why the Post would platform the piece.

Several readers announced subscription cancellations, citing the column as the final straw following Bezos's ownership and staff layoffs. Readers characterized the piece as lacking substance and being out of touch with American families' realities.

The controversy highlighted broader concerns about the Post's editorial direction under Bezos's ownership.

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