Exclusive – Ohio GOP’s Bernie Moreno: ‘Manic Move to Electric Vehicles’ Will ‘Destroy’ U.S. Auto Industry

Ohio Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno told Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday that the “manic move to electric vehicles” will “destroy” the U.S. auto industry and greatly benefit China.

Moreno, who established one of the largest auto dealership groups in the United States, joined the program just days after President Joe Biden announced a new rule on Wednesday requiring most cars sold in the U.S. by 2032 to be EVs or hybrids.

“This irrational move towards electric vehicles – this manic move to electric vehicles is going to destroy the auto industry in America,” he told Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle.

Moreno, who is squaring off with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in the Buckeye State race, said that the left’s push for electric vehicles is handing the U.S. auto industry over to China.

YUNCHENG, CHINA – MARCH 28: Employees work on the assembly line of electric vehicles at a factory of Dayun Automobile Co., Ltd on March 28, 2023 in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province of China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

“You look at the Buick electric vehicles that are coming out – almost all of them made in China. The Lincoln electric vehicles are all going to be mostly produced in China. The batteries are mostly produced in China,” Moreno said. ‘So we’re going to hand our auto industry, which at one point was almost seven percent of our gross domestic product (GDP), over to our enemy, China. It is insane.”

LISTEN:

“China has a company that people will start hearing a lot about called BYD,” the Trump-backed candidate added. “They’re building these giant, massive factories in Mexico and want to ship these cars over to the U.S. – $15,000-$20,000 electric vehicles – that would decimate our auto industry in America. Sherrod Brown is all in for that.”

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, talks with reporters before a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Thursday, June 22, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP)

This is the “bloodbath” former President Donald Trump was speaking about at a Buckey Values PAC rally for Moreno in Dayton, Ohio, on March 16. In his full quote that was not taken entirely out-of-context by the legacy media, Trump said he would “put a 100 percent tariff on every single car” that China builds in Mexico and tries to sell into the United States market. However, if he is not elected president, he predicts China will flood the U.S. market with its cheaply made cars, causing a “bloodbath” in the U.S. auto industry.

“If you’re an auto worker, if you’re a union worker in Ohio, Sherrod Brown is not looking out for you,” Moreno said Saturday. “He is going to destroy your career, destroy your livelihood. We’re going to change that. Vote for me, vote for Bernie Moreno against Sherrod Brown, and I’ll make sure we preserve your job.”

The Republican candidate also emphasized that the federal government “should not incentivize or penalize” consumers to purchase a particular kind of car.

“I started with one tiny little dealership. I built a group of 15 dealerships representing 30 brands, probably in my life responsible for my company selling over a million automobiles. Never did I have a client walk in my showroom and say, ‘What kind of car does Sherrod Brown or Joe Biden want me to buy?’” Moreno told Boyle. “That’s not the way our markets work.”

“People should be allowed to make their own choices. We should not incentivize or penalize people to buy one kind of car or the other,” he added. “People know what’s best for them and their family; that’s a basic American tenet, but Sherrod Brown thinks he’s smarter than everybody else. He thinks he should be the one that tells you what kind of car to drive.”