Judge Rosemarie Aquilina.
During this campaign gubernatorial campaign, the GOP has invoked the Larry Nassar case to score points. Lt. Gov. Brian Calley used it during the primary in an ad. Now, Bill Schuette supporters have tried to capitalize on the case in an online ad, accusing Democratic opponent Grechen Whitmer of refusing to prosecute Nassar when she was the interim Ingham County prosecutor.
Whitmer isn't happy with the ad, and the judge in the case isn't pleased with her name being used in it.
On Saturday, the Michigan Republican Party said Saturday it will honor Judge Rosemarie Aquilina’s request to remove her name from the controversial ad attacking Whitmer, reports Jonathan Oosting of the Detroit News.
The online ad features CNN footage of Nassar with text identifying “the voice of Judge Rosemarie Aquilina” while an unidentified narrator criticizes Whitmer.
The News reports:
While the GOP may have legal authority to use the news footage, they could have cropped her name out and did not ask permission to use it in the ad, Aquilina told The Detroit News on Saturday, “but more importantly, they really shouldn’t be politicizing the Nassar case.”
“At some point I’ll talk about the Nassar case, but I’m very sad they are politicizing what happened to those sister survivors and this whole issue. It’s just appalling.”
Michigan Republican Party spokeswoman Sarah Anderson said officials had not realized Aquilina’s name appeared in the ad.
Whitmer and several Nassar victims called on Schuette to ask the Michigan Republican Party to take down the ad Whitmer describes as a “callous, craven,” lie, the News reports.
