U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) joins as former hostages and family members of current hostages gather for a vigil and news conference, marking the two-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 7, 2025. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon
Like Vice-President JD Vance, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York) and Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) flip-flopped dramatically when it came to President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. Moreno, in late 2020, was highly critical of Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results; in 2021, he did an about-face and claimed, without evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
But that flip-flopping didn't prevent Moreno from winning Ohio's 2024 U.S. Senate race and flipping a seat previously held by Democrat Sherrod Brown, who he defeated by roughly 3.5 percent.
Now, in late 2025, the Bogotá, Colombia-born senator and former car salesman is admitting that he spied on the cars of his Democratic colleagues.
During a Wednesday, November 5 Senate confirmation hearing for Ryan McCormack — President Donald Trump's nominee for an undersecretary position in the U.S. Department of Transportation — Moreno told him, "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?.... 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."
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada) called Moreno out, saying, "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. ... 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. 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."
Rosen called Moreno out on X, formerly Twitter, as well.
The Nevada senator tweeted, "Instead of @berniemoreno creepily following us to the cars we use to get to work in the Capitol and writing down their VIN numbers, I'd suggest he use his time in more productive ways – like coming to the table and negotiating with Democrats on actions to protect Americans' access to affordable health care and end this Republican shutdown."