Columbus, OH – Today is the final edition of Bad News Bernie – what a ride it has been. From refusing to pay his employees and destroying the evidence to get away with it, to mocking and insulting Ohioans for caring about abortion rights, to the pattern of lies that has haunted his campaign since the very beginning, there has been a lot of Bad News for Bernie Moreno, and this week was no different. Thanks for tuning in as Moreno proved to Ohioans week after week that he only looks out for himself.

NEED-TO-KNOW THIS WEEK:

• Recent reporting caught Moreno in yet another lie, this time about using an anti-recording device on Ohio voters to “block people from recording his events,” despite claiming that “the gadget was ‘only being used against trackers, rather than regular event attendees.”

• Moreno said he “would support cutting all federal funding for child care” even though “more than half of Ohio’s child care funding” comes from federal sources, and told an Ohio mother he “[doesn’t] support” funding to increase access to childcare.

• New reporting from Cleveland.com revealed Moreno was sued by his former mentor for stealing “confidential company data.”

PANTS ON FIRE: Last week, Bernie Moreno got caught using an anti-recording device to prevent Ohioans from hearing what he has to say – and now, new reporting from Mother Jones caught Moreno using the anti-recording device on Ohio voters to “block people from recording his events.” Moreno’s use of the device follows him “land[ing] himself in hot water” after he was caught “mocking” Ohio women and calling them “a little crazy” for wanting to make their own health care decisions.

WATCH MORE FROM WCMH HERE

MORENO DOESN’T CARE ABOUT OHIO MOTHERS: New reporting this week revealed that Bernie Moreno said he “would support cutting all federal funding for child care” even though “more than half of Ohio’s child care funding” comes from federal sources. As Ohio working families are facing a childcare crisis, Moreno told an Ohio mother he doesn’t support funding to increase access to childcare. Moreno has previously faced scrutiny for telling a woman who worked for him to “put your kids in f***ing daycare” after “she asked about flexibility in her work schedule.”

LAWSUIT AFTER LAWSUIT AFTER LAWSUIT AFTER LAWSUIT: New reporting this week found Bernie Moreno was sued by his former mentor for stealing “confidential company data” after he moved to Ohio. This is the latest example in “a series of lawsuits that have come to light” against Moreno – who has been sued at least 50 times – including over a dozen lawsuits for refusing to pay his employees the overtime wages they earned and multiple lawsuits for gender and age discrimination. Read more from Cleveland.com here:

• … [Moreno’s] former employer – led by a helicopter-commuting billionaire named Herb Chambers – sued him in 2005, claiming Moreno misappropriated confidential company data and used its resources to poach customers.

• In legal filings that have surfaced during the campaign, Moreno has been accused of gender and age discrimination. More than a dozen dealership employees sued Moreno over unpaid overtime. Another said Moreno stiffed him on profit sharing he was promised.

• The suit claimed Moreno sold about 20 cars through his dealership to Chambers customers in violation of a confidentiality agreement and accused him of “improperly” advertising his Ohio dealership in Massachusetts.

• Years later, more than dozen lawsuits were filed against Moreno by employees at his Burlington dealership, claiming Moreno didn’t pay them overtime. Ultimately, Moreno was ordered to pay two of the workers more than $400,000, and 14 other lawsuits were settled for an undisclosed amount, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

• Moreno and his company or subsidiary also has faced three discrimination lawsuits in Cuyahoga County between 2015 and 2017, according to the Associated Press.

FAT CAT RETURNS: In Toledo, Mansfield, and Northwood, Ohioans were reminded that Fat Cat Bernie Moreno “stiff[ed] workers” and faced “more than 50 lawsuits” – including over a dozen where he refused to pay his employees the overtime wages they earned and destroyed the evidence to try to get away with it.

Ohioans in Mansfield slam Moreno for stiffing his workers.

Ohioans in Toledo call out Moreno’s record refusing to pay his employees.

Ohioans in Northwood protest Moreno over his record of screwing workers.

ONLY OUT FOR HIMSELF: There’s one thing Ohioans know about Bernie Moreno: he only looks out for himself. From “stiffing workers” and “destroy[ing] evidence” to get out of paying his employees the wages they earned, to his comments mocking Ohio women for caring about the ability to make their own health care decisions, and supporting a national abortion ban that would overturn the will of Ohioans who voted to protect abortion rights last year, Moreno has made it clear he won’t fight for Ohio.

• Moreno’s campaign has been “clouded” by a “slew of lawsuits for workers’ wages and workplace discrimination,” including over a dozen lawsuits where Moreno refused to pay his workers the overtime they earned, and deliberately destroyed evidence he was legally required to keep to get out of it.

• Moreno called Ohioans “a little crazy” for caring about a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, said he is “100 percent pro-life with no exceptions,” and would vote for a national abortion ban that would overturn the will of Ohioans.

• Moreno has been caught in lie after lie on the campaign trail and has faced scrutiny for the “string of inconsistencies that have dogged his campaign.” Moreno was caught repeatedly lying about selling the Chinese-made Buick Envision which contributed to “Ohio jobs being shipped overseas,” lying about his phony “rags-to-riches” story as the “signature pitch” of his campaign, and lying about “s[elling] off all of his businesses” while spending nearly $50 million to open a new car dealership.

• Moreno opposed the bipartisan bill to secure the border, opposed Sherrod’s bill to crack down on dangerous fentanyl, and said he won’t work across the aisle to fight for Ohio.

• Moreno isn’t the self-made outsider he claims to be. Despite claiming he “built his car dealer empire all on his own,” Moreno actually received “much-needed handout[s],” “special favors,” and “financial assistance” and “leveraged his family connections” and the “Moreno Family cash reserves” to enrich himself. Moreno has exploited his insider political connections to boost his businesses and is “heavily invested” in and profited off of a family enrichment scheme with his brothers by funneling U.S. taxpayer money into banks that financed projects his family oversaw.

WHAT OHIOANS ARE READING THIS WEEK:

• UAW Local 14 President Tony Totty: “[Bernie Moreno] does not live up to the values of Northwest Ohio and all of Ohio. He’s been lying in the media, and we wanted to confront his lies to his face.”

• Cleveland.com: Senate hopeful Bernie Moreno’s falling out with a billionaire mentor led to legal battle, move to Ohio

• American Journal: Republican Bernie Moreno floats gutting “all” government investments for child care. More than half of Ohio’s child care funding comes from a federal program.

• The Washington Post: “Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno’s campaign is using an anti-recording device to prevent Democrats from recording him…”

• Mother Jones: “Moreno’s decision to muffle recordings with the gadget may have been prompted by criticism he’s received for leaked audio in which he discusses his thoughts about abortion: In late September, Moreno was recorded at an event saying that suburban women making abortion their top issue at the polls is ‘a little crazy by the way—especially for women that are like past 50, I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think that’s an issue for you.’”

• Rachel Maddow, MSNBC: “That piece of tape of Ohio Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno saying a woman over 50 has no reason to support abortion rights because, you know, ‘she’s not making babies anymore. So why should we care what she thinks?’ That tape got Mr. Moreno a lot of negative press coverage… [Mr. Moreno’s campaign] can’t guarantee he’s not going to say stuff like that…”

• The Guardian: “The Republican candidate, auto salesperson Bernie Moreno, has claimed to have refused to sell a Chinese-made SUV. Spectrum News showed that Moreno did sell such vehicles.”

TWEET OF THE WEEK:

CODA: “[Bernie Moreno] is truly a fat cat and we don’t need him representing us in DC.”

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