What started as a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on transportation nominees turned into a verbal confrontation between senators. jackie rosen (D-Nev.) and Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), the former accused the latter of spying on him and his staff.
Moreno, President Trump’s nominee for Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy, being questioned by Ryan McCormack Said He obtained the vehicle identification number (VIN), which is typically visible through the front windshield of his Democratic colleagues’ cars.
Those vehicles do not have additional driver assistance technologies, he said, a fact he said mitigates pressure from Democrats to mandate such technologies for cars.
rosen protested Later in the hearing, he said he did not own a car in Washington, DC. In fact, the car in which his employees take him to work is his.
Calling Moreno’s move “exaggeration” and an invasion of his and his employees’ privacy, Rosen asked Moreno to present the VINs he had obtained and what he planned to do with them.
A few minutes laterMoreno and Rosen got involved again. After the Ohio Republican pointed out that Rosen did not care about the safety of his employees’ cars, Rosen objected and called Moreno’s actions “a little creepy.”
“If you came and asked me for my VIN, I would tell you what’s in my car,” Rosen said.
After Moreno said he obtained the VINs to “disclose” [Rosen’s] hypocrisy,” the argument further turned into a Record-long government shutdown,
Moreno said Rosen, like all members of Congress, receives a pay check during the government shutdown, while his staff, air traffic controllers and other federal employees do not. Rosen responded that she was donating her paycheck, and blamed Republicans who “are in control of the White House. [and] Senate,” for funding defaults.
“If you go home and eat at a gilded dinner instead of going to Mar-a-Lago while people are starving, you can see and hear your voters. You are blind to the suffering of your people,” Rosen said, referring to the president’s Halloween party at his South Florida club.
A spokesperson for Moreno told The Hill that the senator’s comments “speak for themselves.” The Hill has also contacted Rosen’s office for further comment on the exchange.
