Nevada's Rosen confronts Ohio senator in heated exchange over alleged privacy breach

Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., arrives to speak during a campaign rally at the Thomas & Mack Center with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. Photo by: Steve Marcus

A routine Senate Commerce Committee hearing Wednesday took a dramatic turn when U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., accused colleague Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, of crossing a privacy line by collecting vehicle identification numbers from cars belonging to Democratic staff members.

The tense exchange quickly became the focus of the hearing, surfacing deep divisions over privacy, safety and the ongoing government shutdown.

Moreno began the confrontation by stating, “Would it surprise you that I obtained the VIN numbers of all of my Democratic colleagues’ cars and discovered that none of them have invested in the additional safety features on their vehicles?” He claimed they’d rather mandate the features from afar than purchase them for Americans when, he claimed, they declined to purchase those same features for themselves.

Rosen, visibly angered, replied that the vehicle in question belonged to her staff: “That is my staff’s car. I don’t own a vehicle in D.C.; my staff drives me to and from the Capitol,” she responded. Rosen then challenged Moreno to be transparent with his fact-finding mission: “I am asking the senator to submit to the committee what VIN numbers you have, whose privacy you violated and what you plan to do with it.”

The exchange intensified as Rosen said, “I object to you stalking my car and my staff to find the VIN numbers to present to this committee. What are you doing there? What are you going to do with them? It’s an invasion of our privacy.” She called out what she saw as a privacy invasion by another member of the committee.

Moreno defended his actions as an attempt to highlight hypocrisy: “When you are purchasing a car with your own funds, you opt not to buy the technology, yet we are here advocating that this should be required for everyone else’s vehicles.”

The conversation then swerved to the government shutdown, with Moreno criticizing Rosen and other Democrats for collecting paychecks while federal workers endure hardship. Rosen fired back, “Actually, I’m donating my paycheck right now. What do you say to the TSA workers, the air traffic controllers, the military, the Capitol Police?”

She then called out Moreno and his fellow Republicans for ignoring constituents’ suffering: “If you went home to a food bank instead of going to Mar-a-Lago to eat at a gold-plated dinner while people are starving, you might see and hear your constituents, sir.”

After the hearing, Rosen continued the conversation on social media: “Instead of Bernie Moreno creepily following us to the cars we use to get to work and writing down their VIN numbers, I’d suggest he use his time in more productive ways — like coming to the table and negotiating to end this Republican shutdown and protect Americans’ access to affordable health care.”