Vulnerable Dem senator ripped for ignoring questions about Biden's push to 'ban' gas-powered cars
Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown faced immediate backlash Tuesday after video circulated of him refusing to answer a question about whether he supports the Biden administration’s push to "ban" gas-powered cars.
"Senator Brown, do you think that gas cars should be banned," Brown was asked while walking down the street in Washington, D.C. in a video posted online.
After Brown didn’t answer and kept walking, he was asked if he "supports the EPA’s decision to ban gas cars?"
Brown again declined to answer before he was asked a third time a "yes or no" question asking, "Should gas cars be banned?"
Brown declined to answer a third time and continued on his way.
"While facing his toughest election yet, Sherrod Brown is running from his decades-long record of supporting green energy schemes that burden hardworking Ohioans with higher prices and cripple our energy sector," Reagan McCarthy, communications director for Brown’s Senate opponent, Republican businessman Bernie Moreno, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
"Make no mistake, Brown supported Joe Biden’s radical anti-energy agenda since day one of this administration."
Moreno also posted the exchange on X, saying, "Sherrod Brown won’t answer because the truth is that he is a green new deal radical that wants to crush American autoworkers and hand our industry to China."
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"Sherrod Brown and Joe Biden don’t just want to ban gas cars, they want to overhaul the entire American economy to appease their far-left base," National Republican Senatorial Committee Spokesman Philip Letsou told Fox News Digital.
"The Democrats’ green energy agenda is enriching China while wreaking havoc on American manufacturers, and Sherrod Brown is with them every step of the way."
The exchange also generated criticism from social media users.
"That's because Sherrod Brown is a Green New Deal radical who agrees with Biden!!!" Donald Trump Jr. posted on X.
Some on social media pointed to the fact that Brown has voted against Biden's emissions agenda in the past and has pushed back against Biden's EPA.
"This is bizarre," American Commitment President Phil Kerpen posted on X. "He actually voted right! To stop Biden's EPA gas car ban! I mean, we knew he'd snap back after the election. But he can't even bring himself to play the part???"
Brown has voted with President Biden nearly 100% of the time and voted to confirm 99% of Biden's nominees.
A Brown spokesperson told Fox News Digital "Sen. Brown doesn’t tell anyone what kind of car they should drive.
"He just wants more cars made in Ohio by autoworkers making middle-class wages. That’s why he has stood up to the administration when their policies were wrong for Ohio’s auto industry, and why he’s fighting to ban Chinese electric vehicles."
The Biden administration recently finalized a slate of highly anticipated environmental regulations curbing gas-powered vehicle tailpipe emissions as part of its broader efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat global warming.
Under the new plan, automakers will be forced to rapidly curb the emissions of greenhouse gases, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter from new passenger cars, light trucks and larger pickups and vans beginning with model year 2027 vehicles.
"At a time when millions of Americans are struggling with high costs and inflation, the Biden administration has finalized a regulation that will unequivocally eliminate most new gas cars and traditional hybrids from the U.S. market in less than a decade," American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers President and CEO Chet Thompson and American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers said in a statement after the EPA rules were announced.
"As much as the president and EPA claim to have ‘eased’ their approach, nothing could be further from the truth."
Brown is facing a hotly contested re-election contest against Moreno in November that the Cook Political Report ranks as a toss-up and many believe provides one of the best chances Republicans have to gain control of the Senate in a state Trump carried by eight points in 2020.
Fox News Digital's Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report