Ohio Senate Candidate Bernie Moreno on Thursday demanded that his opponent, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, “fess up” to the Democratic Party’s efforts to “cover up” President Biden’s mental state.
Moreno, a Republican businessman, held a news conference outside Brown’s Washington, D.C., office and told reporters that Democrats like Brown “have hidden from the American public the fact that we have a commander in chief who is incapacitated” and did so “for political gain, so they can impose their left-wing agenda.”
Biden, 81, has faced widespread calls to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race since his disastrous performance in last month’s debate, where his halting speech and sometimes incoherent answers rekindled concerns about his mental acuity. Republicans have since gone on the attack, accusing Democrats of downplaying the president’s age and covering up his mental breakdowns.
Brown has remained largely silent on whether Biden should step down, though CNN and Axios have reported that the Ohio senator has privately said he does not believe Biden can win in November.
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Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno speaks at the Columbiana County Lincoln Day Dinner in Salem, Ohio, Friday, March 15, 2024. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
On Wednesday, he told reporters he had heard “concerns” about Biden of his Ohio constituents.
“I hear the legitimate concerns Ohioans have about the president. I appreciate that, but my job is to continue to work for my state to fight prescription drug prices and create jobs,” Brown said.
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Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, during a hearing in Washington, DC, on June 22, 2023. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“This guy is a coward,” Moreno said of Brown. “This guy is now hiding from his lies because he knows the game is over, that people have seen what you can’t unsee. And it’s a disgrace. It’s a disgrace. And he’s a superdelegate. (I) remind you all that he’s a superdelegate. He refuses to take a position on where he stands on Biden. It’s absolutely disgraceful.”
In the Democratic Party, a superdelegate is an unelected delegate to the Democratic National Convention who is free to support any candidate for the party’s presidential nomination. If Biden withdraws from the race, Brown and the other superdelegates will play a critical role in selecting the party’s presidential nominee.
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Senate candidate Bernie Moreno accused Sen. Sherrod Brown of covering up President Biden’s mental state by staying silent. (Getty Images)
Moreno accused Brown of being complicit in “the greatest cover-up in American history” by remaining silent about Biden’s fitness for office.
“This is Watergate on steroids. They knew all along — especially Sherrod Brown, who has been friends with Joe Biden for decades. So it’s not like they had casual knowledge,” he said.
A Brown campaign spokesman accused Moreno of playing “political games” during his news conference outside Brown’s office.
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“While Sherrod works for the people of Ohio, Bernie Moreno is once again playing political games that show how much he only thinks about himself,” said Deputy Communications Director Matt Keyes.
Ohio Senate Race Considered a ‘Tie’ Race by Nonpartisan Political Handicap Cook’s Political Reportalongside just two other Senate candidates. With the two-way vote in decline, Senate candidates have a much better chance of winning if the presidential candidate at the top of their ticket also wins their state.
Kelly Phares and Tyler Olson of Fox News, and Julia Johnson of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
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