SANDUSKY —
There’s little doubt U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno’s office has opted for a scorched Earth strategy in its dealings with the press.
Moreno, who has ducked town halls throughout Congress’ summer recess, spoke at the Cleveland City Club last week. He was booed but stood his ground, claiming there are no cuts to Medicaid in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. He also predicted Trump would win the Nobel Peace Prize.
When the Ohio Capital Journal asked Moreno’s office about voter events, a spokeswoman pointed to a press release describing an 18-county tour earlier this month. Stops included a dairy, a restaurant, a steel plant, and a factory. But the events weren’t publicized and appeared limited to invited guests.
Moreno’s office has similarly ignored requests from StayTunedSandusky.com, the Sandusky Register, the Norwalk Reflector, the Advertiser-Tribune of Tiffin, and the Findlay Courier. The office did not provide StayTunedSandusky.com the press release.
The office has been hostile since earlier this year. On Feb. 26, Moreno’s chief of staff, Philip Lets, called StayTunedSandusky editor Matt Westerhold to complain about coverage of a vote affecting veterans’ health care under the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022.
The PACT Act was named after a Sandusky woman’s husband who died after returning from tours of duty where he was exposed to toxic chemicals from smokestacks at burn pits the U.S. military maintained.
Letsou accused a reporter of unprofessional conduct, alleged the press misrepresented the vote, and demanded conversations be kept off the record — despite refusing to answer direct questions about the Senator’s position.
Those claims were reviewed and determined to be false. Letsou’s insistence that there was “no vote” was misleading. Days later, both Moreno and Sen. Jon Husted voted to strip away $23 billion in guaranteed 2026 funding for the PACT Act.
Read: Moreno, Husted vote to gut PACT Act
Transcript excerpts
Below are key portions of the Feb. 26 call that was made when I was still editor at the Register. The full audio was recorded with Letsou’s knowledge and can be listened to by clicking on the green screen, or at StayTunedSandusky’s Youtube channel.
The call happened after Letsou called a reporter and falsely accused him of being unprofessional, and later complained to the reporter’s direct supervisor before he called Westerhold. There were four phone calls to the newsroom staff, in all.
Letsou: “You refuse to speak to anyone off the record?”
Westerhold: “I don’t know you, I don’t go off the record with people I don’t know. Journalists generally should not go off the record with sources they don’t know. That would be unwise. I’m not required to go off the record with you.”
Letsou: “Well, it makes it very hard for me to interface with you guys when you print everything I tell you.”
Westerhold: “Then don’t tell me what you don’t want the public to know.”
At another point, Letsou insisted the PACT Act vote had no effect:
Letsou: “It was a non-binding resolution… the funding is not threatened.”
Westerhold: “Then why did the Senator vote for it if it didn’t matter? Will he guarantee he won’t vote against PACT Act funding in the future?”
Letsou refused to provide an answer.
Gaslight the press, stonewall constituents
The conversation highlights a strategy: discredit the press, accuse reporters of misconduct, then avoid substantive answers. Moreno’s office never provided answers to written questions submitted by veterans support groups in Ohio and constituents in Erie County.
For families depending on PACT Act benefits — covering toxic burn pit exposure and other service-related conditions — the evasions mean uncertainty about whether their health care will remain funded.
When Westerhold pressed him about why Moreno’s office avoided direct answers, Letsou bristled:
Westerhold: “This isn’t hostility. These are deadlines. These are questions veterans in our community are asking.”
Letsou: “You’ve created hostility in this conversation that wasn’t there before. I don’t know why you’re doing this.”
Westerhold: “There’s no hostility here. I’m simply asking if the Senator will give a guarantee.”
Letsou has not responded to any inquiries. Reagan McCarthy, Moreno’s public information officer, also has not responded to written inquiries of telephone calls since March.
Rebecca Angelson, Sen. Jon Husted’s chief of staff, Jess Andrews, his deputy chief of staff, and Joshua Eck, his state director, all have not responded to inquiries since both senators voted to take away funding for the PACT Act.
