Rob Bresnahan’s New Ad “Misleading at Best” According to Local Fact Check

The new ad is “misleading at best” and “ethically questionable” according to local “Ad Watch” story; 28/22 and WVIA also call out Bresnahan’s false claims

SCRANTON, PA – Rob Bresnahan has once again been caught lying to the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania. New reporting from several local outlets, including an ad fact check from the Scranton Times-Tribune and stories from 28/22 and WVIA, highlight the falsehoods in Rob’s new ad.

• The Times-Tribune calls Bresnahan’s ad “misleading at best” and “ethically questionable” after he deceptively edited audio from a local news report to make it appear as though a reporter said something different than what they actually said. They noted “several claims in the ad, as well as an altered sound bite from Hiller, insisting those fees ended due to Trump’s order are false.”
  
• 28/22 reported that Bresnahan altered audio from their broadcast “to produce a different message than was originally reported.”

• And WVIA reported that the executive order Bresnahan is trying to take credit for “does not actually end a stormwater management fee some Luzerne County communities pay to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay watershed.”

“If Rob Bresnahan had a record he could defend, he wouldn’t have to fabricate one. Local media are calling out his dishonesty and now his campaign has gone so far as to alter a local news anchor’s words to mislead us. Meanwhile, his actual record is catching up with him: higher health care costs and sky-high prices,” said campaign spokesperson Emma Mustion. “People here deserve honesty and results, not a congressman more focused on his stock portfolio than the people he was elected to serve.”

Read more about Rob Bresnahan’s false claims below:

Scranton Times-Tribune: 8TH DISTRICT AD WATCH: ‘Rain tax’ claims murky, ethically questionable, in Bresnahan ad

• Key claim: Bresnahan says he and President Trump ended the federal rain tax mandate, with parallel claims that they “ended the rain tax.”

• Is it factual? The ad is misleading at best.

• Trump indeed signed an executive order on Sept. 16 that revoked the Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration order signed in 2009 by then-President Barack Obama. So, Bresnahan’s claim that the federal rain tax mandate was ended is accurate.

• What the ad left muddied is the reality that ending the mandate and ending the tax are two very different things.

• Several claims in the ad, as well as an altered sound bite from Hiller, insisting those fees ended due to Trump’s order are false.

• WBRE and WYOU pointed out that the clip used from their 6 p.m. news broadcast on Sept. 16 was “altered to produce a different message than was originally reported.”

• On his Facebook account, Hiller wrote, “Let me just say that editing a soundbite to fit a narrative is something I do not do professionally and would never teach to any of my college students. Ethics matter.” A Bresnahan spokeswoman told the stations the clip was “shortened for brevity” for the ad; However, it changed the fundamental reporting of the story.

WVIA: ‘Rain tax’ executive order signed by President Trump does not cancel stormwater fees for Luzerne County communities

• President Donald Trump’s executive order to end the federal “rain tax” mandate, signed last week as U.S. Rep Rob Bresnahan Jr. watched, does not actually end a stormwater management fee some Luzerne County communities pay to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

• That’s according to the agency that levies the fee.

• “At this time, President Trump’s recent executive order does not eliminate WVSA’s [Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority] stormwater fee or change the requirements currently in place for participating municipalities,” the authority said in a statement. “State law still requires municipalities to manage stormwater runoff and reduce pollution entering local streams and waterways.”

• In Luzerne County, 32 municipalities voted to meet those Chesapeake Bay obligations through stormwater fees collected by the WVSA.

• The authority says most property owners pay $14.40 per quarter or $57.60 per year for regional stormwater services.

• “Instead of those funds going to fix roads or support our local police and fire departments, that money goes to meet a pollution requirement aimed at cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay more than 200 miles away,” Bresnahan said.

• WVSA says the stormwater fees do go towards many local initiatives, including street sweeping and removing roadway debris, municipal catch basin replacement, repair, cleaning and maintenance; and storm sewer piping replacement, system cleaning, flushing and maintenance, among other projects.

• The authority also says $1 million per year is reimbursed to the 32 municipalities to invest in their stormwater infrastructure.

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