A tense exchange during a committee meeting led to a shouting match between Sens. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio.
The senators sparred during a Senate Commerce Committee meeting on Wednesday amid the government shutdown, with Rosen accusing Moreno of stalking her car. Moreno was questioning President Trump’s nominee for under secretary of transportation for policy when he made the remark about vehicle identification numbers (VIN).
“Would it surprise you that I got the VIN numbers of every one of my Democrat colleagues’ vehicles and found that none of them bought any of the additional safety technologies on their cars?” he said.
“So when you are actually shopping for a car with your own money, you don’t buy the technology, but we’re sitting here saying that this should be mandated for everybody else’s cars, and what’s been the result – we drove up the price of cars almost doubled in the last 10 years,” Moreno continued.
“As somebody who’s been here 10 months, I think what we just saw was exactly classic Washington, D.C. In other words, the car that I drive should be safe. The car that my staff drives? Who cares about them? I get a paycheck,” he added.
Rosen fired back with her objection to what she called an invasion of privacy.
“I object to you stalking my car and my staff to find the VIN numbers to present to this committee. Why are you doing that? What are you going to do with them? It’s an invasion of our privacy,” she said.“If you came and asked me for my VIN, I would tell you what I have in my car.”
“It’s visible from the outside of the car,” Moreno noted.
“So you went and followed me to see who drives me and write down their VIN number. You interrupted me. You’re attacking me. You watched me go to see who drives me, writing down their VIN number so you could find out what they have. That seems a little creepy! That seems a—” Rosen argued before Moreno jumped in.
“Just to expose the hypocrisy, much like, for example, the fact that you get a paycheck, but you walk by— You got a paycheck,” he fired back.
“I’m donating my paychecks, sir, and I would happily be on legislation not to give—” Rosen argued.
“What about your staff? What do you say to them? What do the TSA workers— What do they say to air traffic controllers?” Moreno demanded.
Rosen blamed Republicans, who are “in control of the White House [and] the Senate,” as she told Moreno, “If you went home to a food bank instead of going to Mar-a-Lago, to eat at a gold-plated dinner while people are starving, you might see and hear your constituents, sir.”
The senator was likely referring to Trump’s Halloween party at his Florida residence, which Moreno reportedly did not attend, according to The Hill.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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