When U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno spoke to a crowd at the Mahoning County Republican Party headquarters, he didn’t hold back.

Moreno, a Republican, took direct aim at Democrats.

That included Democratic Congressional leadership in Congress — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — as well as a few Democratic candidates for federal office.

Moreno also targeted Sherrod Brown, who he defeated in the 2024 election and is running in this year’s Senate race against Republican Jon Husted, and Amy Acton, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate who served as the state’s health director during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. She is running against Republican Vivek Ramaswamy.

While Moreno had little positive to say about Husted and Ramaswamy, he had plenty of negative things to say about Brown and Acton.

Moreno said: “The idea that we’re whitewashing what Amy Acton did during COVID is a disgrace. She ruined lives. Now, Mike DeWine (the Republican governor) will say, well, he made the ultimate decision. Well, shame on you too, but you’re not up for election. You’re not up for election. But if you were, I would campaign against you for those reasons. But here’s the reality. Amy Acton was giving that advice. And what was the advice? Destroy people’s lives. Shame those of us who said, ‘Wait a second. Time out. Why six feet? Seems random, right? Does this mask really do anything? If I take it off to eat, I’ll be OK, but I have to put it right back on. This seems very arbitrary and random, right? Why are we closing schools, public schools for two years and private schools for three days?'”

Moreno continued: “It seems that we’re destroying a lot of people’s lives here, seniors that couldn’t see their families, hospitals that had to take out their patients, preemptive surgeries that were missed. This is the person that’s going to be governor of the state? Absolutely not. But it’s up to all of you in this room.”

During the very early days of the pandemic, Moreno called for the economy to reopen.

But WKYC, a Cleveland television station, reported after getting backlash, Moreno said he regretted that his comments failed to reflect his point and that political and business leaders should figure out ways to keep the virus in check without such a dramatic hit to the economy.

He told the TV station: “What I failed miserably at doing was capturing, obviously, what I was really trying to say. The governor and the lieutenant governor (Husted) and the head of the health department (Acton) are doing unbelievable work.”

Moreno also told WKYC that he wanted to figure out how to put “these social norms in place that when the next pandemic comes that we don’t have to take this type of draconian action. That’s really what I was really trying to get across. Clearly, mission not accomplished.”

In response to a question about the fairness of news at Mahoning GOP headquarters, Moreno specifically mentioned WKYC, saying he and Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, met with the station.

Moreno said: “They have to have fair and balanced coverage. Not asking to have conservative views. Believe me that would be, right, not what we want. Just fair and balanced coverage.”

Regarding Brown, Moreno said: “This is like a bad ‘Star Wars’ episode where you thought the evil guy had vanished and then the next movie comes out and you’re like where did he come from? In the previous movie, didn’t he go away? There’s never been a scenario where the voters of a state fired an elected official so resoundingly and that elected official immediately turns around and then runs again. That’s crazy. The even crazier part is Sherrod Brown, because he has the media on his side, because he has the entirety of the media on his side, he can go out and run TV ads as if he was never in Washington, D.C. When I go to D.C., I’m going to make sure Congress can’t trade stock. Like, you were there for 32 years. Why didn’t you do it then? It’s totally crazy.”

Moreno beat Brown, then a three-term incumbent, in the 2024 Senate race by 3.6%.

Moreno said of Brown: “He’ll say the economy’s rigged. You didn’t do anything about that for 32 years. This is a guy who’s an abject failure. You should also know something I didn’t know. I kind of suspected, honestly. I didn’t know it until it was validated. I talk to a lot of people. I like to know what’s going on. So the Senate clerks — these are not partisan people — I can tell you this again, because the media does not report this, Sherrod Brown is a uniquely hated individual in Washington, D.C. I mean people do not like him and now he wants to go back and be in the United States Senate.”

Moreno said Mahoning County — which he won by 0.2%, 220 votes — got him “across the finish line.”

Had he lost, Moreno said, “The working family tax cuts would never have happened. That was a 50-50 decision. (Vice President) JD (Vance) had to come in and break the tie. What does that mean? No tax for tips. No tax on overtime. No tax on Social Security. A child tax credit. The standard deduction was increased. Seniors now have an additional deduction that basically wipes away their taxes on Social Security. That’s like 75 grand a year. None of that would have happened if it wasn’t for you electing me to the United States Senate. We would be in total peril right now with our fossil fuel industry.”

David Skolnick covers politics for the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator.