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Columbus, OH –  This weekend, the New York Times detailed Bernie Moreno’s phony “riches-to-rags-to-riches” story that he’s made the “signature pitch” of his campaign. But that’s only the latest in “a string of inconsistencies” showing Ohioans that Moreno is only out for himself.

Here’s A Reminder of All Of The Lies Bernie Moreno Is Telling On the Campaign Trail:

1. Moreno’s phony “riches-to-rags-to-riches,” “only-in-America bootstraps story” which he has made the “signature pitch” of his campaign is a lie he’s telling as part of a “calculated process of self-creation” on the campaign trail. Moreno repeatedly tells voters his family came to the United States with “absolutely nothing,” but reporting found Moreno is intentionally omitting details of his “rich and politically connected family” and his parent’s “quick” success in America during his pitch to voters.

2. Moreno repeatedly lies and says he never sold the Chinese-made Buick Envision – an SUV that was always made in China – but the truth is, Moreno sold the car for years and “promoted the vehicles” in numerous ads, including in a customer testimonial.

3. Moreno lies about shutting down Cleveland State’s Confucius Institute while serving on the university’s board – but in fact, the Confucius Institute operated for years after Moreno’s tenure and Moreno approved multiple budgets that funded the Institute.

4. Moreno claims that he came to the United States from Colombia to “escape” socialism but reporting found that Moreno is lying and his statements “do not withstand historical scrutiny.”

5. Moreno is lying about his business origin story, claiming he built his car dealership business “all on his own” and without “handouts” – but in reality, Moreno received an insider deal to purchase his first dealership at a “dramatically reduced price.”

SEE ALSO: NEW: NYT Report Details Bernie Moreno’s Phony “Rags-To-Riches Tale” & Lies About “Bootstraps Story” As Part Of “Calculated Process of Self-Creation”; Bernie Moreno “Sold Out American Workers” With “Serious Lie” About Selling Chinese-Made Cars; Ohio Workers Slam Moreno For Killing Ohio Jobs After Reporting Revealed He Lied About Selling Chinese-Made Cars; Bernie Moreno Again Caught Lying, This Time About Selling Chinese-Made Buick Envision; NEW: Moreno Lying About Getting Rid of Confucius Institute; NEW: Bernie Moreno Caught Lying About “Escaping” Socialism; Questions Bernie Moreno Must Answer After New Report Exposes He’s Been Lying About How He Started His First Dealership

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New York Times: Bernie Moreno, The Republican Challenging Senator Sherrod Brown In Ohio, Tells A Riches-To-Rags-To-Riches Tale. But The Reality Isn’t So Tidy.

Columbus, OH –  Following yesterday’s New York Times report detailing Bernie Moreno’s phony “riches-to-rags-to-riches,” “only-in-America bootstraps story” which he has made the “signature pitch” of his campaign, Moreno is “under fire” for lying to Ohioans as it becomes clear his “story isn’t what he says.”

What Ohioans are reading about Bernie Moreno’s phony “bootstraps story”:

Politico Playbook: TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?
May 12, 2024

• Ohio GOP Senate nominee BERNIE MORENO has often told a family story of classic immigrant striving: “We came here with absolutely nothing” from Colombia, he says, and he eventually rose to become a successful businessman.

• That’s not quite the whole story, NYT’s Jonathan Weisman, Patricia Mazzei and Simón Posada uncover.

• In fact, he “was born into a rich and politically connected family in Bogotá, a city that it never completely left behind, where some members continue to enjoy great wealth and status.”

• One brother is a former Inter-American Development Bank president who’s friends with the CLINTONS and JEB BUSH. And Moreno’s story is “familiar to the South American elite.”

Political Wire: Bernie Moreno’s Immigrant Story Isn’t What He Says
Taegan Goodard
May 12, 2024

• New York Times: “Running under the banner of Donald Trump’s populist political movement, Bernie Moreno, the Republican challenging Senator Sherrod Brown, humbly calls himself a “car guy from Cleveland” and recounts the modest circumstances of his childhood, when his immigrant family started over from scratch in the United States.”

• Said Moreno: “We came here with absolutely nothing — we came here legally — but we came here, nine of us in a two-bedroom apartment.”

• “But there is much more that Mr. Moreno does not say about his background, his upbringing and his very powerful present-day ties in the country where he was born.”

• “Mr. Moreno was born into a rich and politically connected family in Bogotá, a city that it never completely left behind, where some members continue to enjoy great wealth and status.”

Trending on X: “Bernie Moreno’s Rags-to-Riches Tale Under Fire”

SEE ALSO: NEW: NYT Report Details Bernie Moreno’s Phony “Rags-To-Riches Tale” & Lies About “Bootstraps Story” As Part Of “Calculated Process of Self-Creation”

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New York Times: Bernie Moreno, The Republican Challenging Senator Sherrod Brown In Ohio, Tells A Riches-To-Rags-To-Riches Tale. But The Reality Isn’t So Tidy.

New York Times: “There Is Much More That Mr. Moreno Does Not Say About His Background, His Upbringing And His Very Powerful Present-Day Ties In The Country Where He Was Born.”

Columbus, OH –  A new New York Times report today details Bernie Moreno’s phony “riches-to-rags-to-riches,” “only-in-America bootstraps story” which he has made the “signature pitch” of his campaign to voters as part of a “calculated process of self-creation.” While Moreno repeatedly tells voters his family came to the United States with “absolutely nothing,” the report finds Moreno is lying about his family moving into a “cramped, two-bedroom apartment” and is intentionally omitting details of his “rich and politically connected family” and his parent’s “quick” success in America during his pitch to voters. 

This is the latest in a “series of inconsistencies” that are “dogg[ing]” Moreno on the campaign trail – including Moreno lying about his family “escap[ing]” socialism, lying about refusing to sell Chinese-made cars, lying about his business origin story, and lying about shutting down Cleveland State’s Confucius Institute. 

Read more:

New York Times: He’s Running for Senate With an Immigrant’s Origin Story. Here’s the Rest.
Jonathan Weisman, Patricia Mazzei and Simón Posada
May 12, 2024

• ​​Bernie Moreno, the Republican challenging Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio, tells a riches-to-rags-to-riches tale. But the reality isn’t so tidy.

• He is running for the Senate as an immigrant who made good, reaching out to Ohio voters with a stirring, only-in-America bootstraps story: arriving as a child from Colombia, taking a risk on a struggling business, and then turning it into a smashing success and himself into a millionaire 100 times over.

• …Bernie Moreno, the Republican challenging Senator Sherrod Brown, humbly calls himself a “car guy from Cleveland” and recounts the modest circumstances of his childhood, when his immigrant family started over from scratch in the United States.

• “We came here with absolutely nothing — we came here legally — but we came here, nine of us in a two-bedroom apartment,” Mr. Moreno said in 2023, in what became his signature pitch. His father “had to leave everything behind,” he has said, remembering what he called his family’s “lower-middle-class status.”

• But there is much more that Mr. Moreno does not say about his background, his upbringing and his very powerful present-day ties in the country where he was born.

• Mr. Moreno was born into a rich and politically connected family in Bogotá, a city that it never completely left behind, where some members continue to enjoy great wealth and status.

• Roberto Moreno, one of the candidate’s brothers, is president and chief executive of Amarilo Holdings, a major development and construction conglomerate in Bogotá.

• Another brother, Luis Alberto Moreno, after serving as Colombia’s ambassador to the United States, was elected president of the Inter-American Development Bank with the backing of George W. Bush’s administration. 

• The Morenos’ immigration narrative is also atypical in that they were not strangers to the country when they arrived: The candidate’s father, Bernardo Moreno Sr., had studied gastroenterology, earned a master’s degree in surgery and had done his medical residency all at the University of Pennsylvania, where Bernie Moreno’s eldest three siblings were born. His mother, Marta Moreno, had earned a degree from Stanford.

• In Colombia, Dr. Moreno had been the country’s equivalent of the secretary of health, and he and his wife enjoyed what Bernie Moreno described as considerable generational wealth on both sides: multiple properties, farms, servants, staff and a house in Bogotá so prominent that it was later converted to the German ambassador’s residence.

• Mr. Moreno, as a candidate for office, speaks often of the cramped, two-bedroom apartment in Florida where his parents and their seven children first took up residence. That first home, purchased in 1971 with a mortgage worth more than $300,000 in today’s dollars, was a three-bedroom condominium in a new, 15-story high-rise on the ocean in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.

• The building was advertised as having “300 feet of your own private beach,” a “wide deck for sunning,” a pool, a putting green and a sauna.

• Within two months, Bernie Moreno’s step-grandfather had lent the family the money to move to a four-bedroom house in Pompano Beach with a pool on a canal, ocean access and a two-car garage.

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Columbus, OH – While Moreno met with donors behind closed doors today, a mobile billboard reminded Ohioans that Bernie Moreno has refused to answer “questions about his biography and business background” that are piling up as reporting has revealed more and more of Moreno’s “inconsistencies” and “dubious claims.”

Mobile billboard parked near Winery 1285 in Mansfield, where Moreno met with donors behind closed doors while refusing to answer questions about his lies.

Questions Moreno must answer about the lies “dogg[ing] his campaign”:

1. Will you apologize to Ohio workers for profiting off of Chinese-made cars?

2. Why are you lying about escaping socialism?

3. Why did you claim you “didn’t take handouts” when reporting shows you got your dealership at a steep discount?

4. Why are you using your rich donors to pay yourself back after loaning millions of dollars to your campaign?

5. Why are you lying about shutting down Cleveland State’s Confucius Institute?

Download the graphics displayed on the mobile billboard for media use here.

SEE ALSO: New AP Report Finds Moreno’s Using Rich Donors To Pay Himself; Bernie Moreno “Sold Out American Workers” With “Serious Lie” About Selling Chinese-Made Cars; ICYMI: Labor Leaders Hit GOP Senate Candidate Bernie Moreno Over China-Made Vehicle Sales [Toledo Blade]; Ohio Workers Slam Moreno For Killing Ohio Jobs After Reporting Revealed He Lied About Selling Chinese-Made Cars; Bernie Moreno Again Caught Lying, This Time About Selling Chinese-Made Buick Envision; NEW: Moreno Lying About Getting Rid of Confucius Institute; NEW: Bernie Moreno Caught Lying About “Escaping” Socialism; Questions Bernie Moreno Must Answer After New Report Exposes He’s Been Lying About How He Started His First Dealership

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Moreno Also Slammed For Opposing Anti-Fentanyl Bill and Supporting National Abortion Ban

Columbus, OH – There was more bad news for Ohio Senate candidate and car salesman Bernie Moreno this week with new reporting from the Associated Press finding that Moreno is using his rich donors to pay himself back after loaning millions of dollars to his campaign. Moreno still can’t hide from scrutiny about his partisan “peacocking” and the lies and baggage that are “dogg[ing]” his campaign, including the taxpayer-funded joyride he took in his $3.4 million Aston Martin and his support for a national abortion ban.

NEED-TO-KNOW THIS WEEK:

• New reporting from the Associated Press found that car salesman Bernie Moreno is using his rich donors to pay himself back after loaning millions of dollars to his campaign.

• Moreno continues facing scrutiny for his baggage and the lies “dogg[ing]” his campaign – including wasting taxpayer dollars for a joyride in his $3.4 million Aston Martin and his record shredding evidence to get out of paying his employees the overtime they’d earned.
  

• Reporting from the Courier Newsroom reminded Ohioans this week that not only does Morneo support a national abortion ban; he thinks women don’t need access to abortion as long as they have someone to lift heavy things such as strollers for them.

• Moreno’s partisan “peacocking” is on full display in a new editorial from the Ironton Tribune in which Moreno is slammed for “reject[ing]” bipartisanship and for having “no real interest” in advocating for Ohioans and being “intent on adding to [the] problem” in Washington.

🤑 BERNIE BUCKS: Bernie Moreno is once again showing Ohioans he’s out for himself – this time, using his rich donors to pay himself back after loaning millions of dollars to his campaign. The Associated Press report highlights “money isn’t enough” to overcome the reality that Moreno is an “untested” candidate who “might not be prepared for the scrutiny” his baggage brings.

🎥 DOUBLE FEATURE: Bernie’s baggage is on full display this week in two new videos: one showing Moreno taking a taxpayer-funded joyride in his $3.4 million supercar, and another from Pod Save America blasting Moreno for his “well-documented” support for a national abortion ban, his record refusing to pay his employees the wages they earned and shredding evidence to  get out of it, and his lies about his business origin story. 

• Heartland Signal: “Video from Cleveland.com shows at least three police cars blocking traffic in the Cleveland suburb of North Olmsted so Moreno could privately use the roads in his luxury Aston Martin Vulcan, which his dealership would later list for $3.4 million.”

• Pod Save America: “[Moreno] also supports a federal nationwide ban on abortion.”

• Pod Save America: “He settled over a dozen wage theft lawsuits related to his private car dealerships. So again, this is a guy who has no respect for workers.”

• Pod Save America: “And then you have guys like [Moreno] who claims ‘he had built his car dealerships all on his own’ when it turns out that he received insider deals that allowed him to buy his car dealership at a dramatically reduced price.”

🚫 HELP WITH STROLLERS, NOT ABORTION RIGHTS: Reporting from the Ohio Capital Journal and the Courier Newsroom reminded Ohioans this week about Moreno’s “well-documented” support for a national abortion ban and that he believes  “women need help with strollers, not abortion.” Read more:

• Courier Newsroom: “Moreno was asked about his stance on reproductive rights in February of this year. He shunned any direct answer and instead an anecdote about his daughter struggling with her child’s stroller. He then offered that helping women carrying strollers are ‘the kinds of things that we can do.’”

• Ohio Capital Journal: “…[Moreno] has called himself ‘100% pro-life, no exceptions.’”

• Ohio Capital Journal: “[Moreno] called Roe v. Wade ‘a terrible decision made over 50 years ago…’”

🦚 MORENO’S PARTISAN PEACOCKING: From “reject[ing]” bipartisanship, to saying he has “no real interest” in advocating for Ohioans, to calling the package that contained the FEND Off Fentanyl Act “357 pages of garbage,” Moreno has made it clear he is out for himself, not Ohioans. Read more from the Ironton Tribune Editorial Board about how Moreno “hasn’t offered any workable solutions” to the issues facing Ohioans and won’t work across the aisle to do the right thing for them:

• The Ironton Tribune: “When questioned on working with the other side at a campaign stop, Moreno said he ‘rejected the premise’ and flat out stated he has no interest in working with the other side, if elected.”

• The Ironton Tribune: “How he intends to accomplish anything in office remains unclear, as he seems intent on just being a voice of nonstop negativity and hasn’t offered any workable solutions.”

• The Ironton Tribune: “Moreno called the recent immigration package…‘357 pages of garbage,’ even though it included FEND Off Fentanyl Act, so beneficial to Ohioans and championed by many in law enforcement.”

 🗞️ WHAT OHIOANS ARE READING THIS WEEK:

• Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey: “Meanwhile, Bernie Moreno – who is running against Senator Brown in the U.S. Senate race this November – talks a lot about crime and supporting police, but fails to do what’s right when he has the opportunity.”

• Heartland Signal: Report: Bernie Moreno closed down local roads to test drive $3.4M imported car

• Associated Press: Money isn’t enough to smooth the path for Republican candidates hoping to retake the Senate

• WCPT: “[Bernie Moreno] was recently forced by a court to pay $400,000 in wages that he had stolen. I mean he was literally convicted of wage theft – stolen from employees at his used-car business – and he says he doesn’t think there should be any minimum wage at all.”

• Courier Newsroom: “[Moreno] then offered that helping women carrying strollers are ‘the kinds of things that we can do.’ There was no further context given as to why women do deserve assistance and care when it comes to strollers, but not in an instance of rape, incest, or an emergency medical situation.”

🐤 TWEET OF THE WEEK:

🎶 CODA: “How [Moreno] intends to accomplish anything in office remains unclear, as he seems intent on just being a voice of nonstop negativity and hasn’t offered any workable solutions.”

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