Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who is up for reelection against Trump-backed Republican businessman Bernie Moreno, was silent on Capitol Hill Tuesday when asked if he thinks gas-powered cars “should be banned.”

In a video released by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), a man off-camera asks, “Sen. Brown, do you think gas cars should be banned,” as Brown and his staffers march on silently.

“Do you support the [Environmental Protection Agency] EPA’s decision to ban gas cars,” the man followed up, seemingly referencing a federal regulation President Joe Biden announced in March aimed at phasing out gas-powered vehicles. Brown did not respond.

Donald Trump Jr. retweeted the video, contending Brown could not respond to the question because he “is a Green New Deal radical who agrees with Biden!!!”

Biden’s federal environmental regulation aims to start “phasing out gas-powered cars, requiring American automakers to produce Electric Vehicles (EVs) as part of his sweeping green energy agenda,” Breitbart News’s John Binder previously noted.

The rule calls for most new cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. by 2032 to be electric vehicles (EVs) or hybrids, the New York Times first reported.

Moreno, who established one of the largest auto groups in the United States, told Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday. days later, “This manic move to electric vehicles is going to destroy the auto industry in America.”

Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, smiles at supporters during his primary election night watch party in Westlake, Ohio, Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (David Dermer/AP)

“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.”

“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.”