Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown dodges reporters, skips Dem meeting to discuss the president’s future
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown is “avoiding reporters like the plague,” a source close to his office told The Post after he failed to attend a scheduled lunch today with other prominent Capitol Hill Democrats.
The missed meeting’s agenda is rumored to be President Biden’s struggling re-election campaign, hampered by a growing number of Democrats calling for him to withdraw from the November ticket.
Records released today by the White House and shared exclusively with The Post reveal that Brown met privately with Biden at least six times since 2020.
The logs show Brown routinely had personal access to Biden for long periods of time and that at least one of their interactions was one on one.
When asked by The Post to confirm the visits and the missed lunch meeting, Brown had no comment.
Declining to comment has become Brown’s modus operandi since Biden’s debate last night with former President Donald Trump, when the dam finally broke for Democrats over Biden’s compromised cognition.
On one recent press call, Brown refused to answer 10 straight questions about Biden’s mental health and whether he himself had ever noticed issues with the president’s mental acuity.
Brown’s repeated dodges have prompted jeers from his Republican Senate opponent, Bernie Moreno, who accuses Brown of “Hidin’ from Biden” since the debate.
In his four decades in office, the 71-year-old Brown has been sparse in dealing the “no comment” card with reporters. But questions about his Biden visits have been met with a stone wall.
The Post posed the following questions to Brown’s comms team:
Has Sen. Brown met personally with Biden any time since Jan. 1, 2021?
Brown declined to comment.
Is there a reason he won’t comment on the president’s mental condition despite having such close access to him?
Brown declined to comment.
Does the senator believe it is his duty to be honest with his voters and alert them to potential problems in their government?
Brown declined to comment.
Does the senator fear president Biden, his team or the Democratic Party leadership?
Brown declined to comment.
What is it about the president’s mental health that is making the senator “no comment” this much for the first time in his very long career?
Brown, ironically, declined to comment; but the silence is getting very loud.
Perhaps that’s because he wants everyone to hear it.
“Brown, like most Democratic senators, has been choosing his words carefully when it comes to President Biden’s health and whether he should seek reelection,” University of Dayton political science Prof. Chris Devine told The Post.
“He may be concerned about alienating some members of the Democratic Party who want Biden to fight on,” Devine continued. “But more than that, I think he and other Democrats are concerned that publicly calling for Biden’s withdrawal will have the opposite effect and only cause Biden to dig in his heels.”
One person who has had plenty of comment is Moreno.
“Sherrod Brown and Joe Biden are longtime friends, and there is no universe in which Brown was unaware of Biden’s years-long mental decline that puts our country at risk. Brown lied to Ohioans about Biden’s condition to pass the most extreme liberal agenda in American history,” the 56-year-old business owner and GOP Senate candidate told The Post.
“The concealment of the president’s cognitive decline is the greatest coverup in American history, and Brown must tell the truth to Ohioans about what he knew and when he knew it.”
Moreno held an impromptu meeting on the Capitol steps in Washington, DC, Thursday.
“This is a situation of lying and covering up the fact that you have a commander in chief that’s incapable of doing his job. You compare this to Watergate, it’s not even close,” Moreno told reporters.
“You have guys like Sherrod Brown that are complicit,” he continued. “This guy runs in the hallway like a rat from all of you.”
Moreno said Democrats kept Biden “in a cocoon, they kept him in a basement, refused to take questions. Even the White House has said the press conference today is the ‘big-boy press conference.’ Think about that for a second. That’s insane. If you can’t come out here and address the media and talk to reporters and give your position, be unequivocal and clear. You have no business being in elected office.”
Remington Research Group polls conducting following the June 27 debate show Brown with a 6-point lead over Moreno as both campaigns gear up for one of this summer’s hottest races outside Paris.
“While other Democrats are rapidly abandoning ship, Sherrod Brown decided it’s smart to tie himself at the hip to mentally incompetent Joe Biden running in a state Trump will handily win,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Philip Letsou told The Post. “Brown’s political career will live or die with Joe Biden — and it’s not looking good.”
