Tag: john fetterman
OMG GOP WTF: The Malignant Weirdness Of Today's Republican Party

OMG GOP WTF: The Malignant Weirdness Of Today's Republican Party

Why are Republicans so weird?

Seriously. There was a time when our disagreements were over taxes, war, and reproductive rights. Those were profound disagreements, but they took place in a shared reality. We agreed on the basic facts, even if we fought bitterly over what to do about them.

Now they’re a toxic blend of corruption, incompetence, weird obsessions, and spectacular self-owns. They aren’t just governing badly. They’re making a mockery of everything they touch.

For example, does Elon Musk really have nothing to focus on beyond Hollywood casting decisions?

Then there’s Trump’s handling of E. Jean Carroll, the advice columnist whom he was found liable for sexually abusing. Trump remains obsessed with the $5.6 million judgment against him. At this point, it obviously isn’t about the money. Five million dollars means nothing to him. It’s about continuing to punish the woman who dared hold him accountable.

My God, he is vile.

Meanwhile, there is always a never-ending list of this administration's malicious incompetence.

Trump’s aesthetic tastes have always been a crime against good judgment. I would gladly pay pay-per-view prices to watch the next Democratic president rip every gaudy gold ornament out of the White House and the rest of Washington.

Trump is running out of space for his garish gold garbage

Electing the right people matters. Who wields power matters. Competence matters. Finally, Republicans don't have a monopoly on weird.

Benedict Fetterman?

Markos Moulitsas is founder and editor of the blogging website Daily Kos and author of three books.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

'He's Gonna Flip!' Democrats Predict Fetterman Switch As Weird New PAC Debuts

'He's Gonna Flip!' Democrats Predict Fetterman Switch As Weird New PAC Debuts

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is widely regarded as one of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate, frequently abandoning his party during key votes to align himself with President Donald Trump.

Now some political analysts believe Fetterman may ditch the Democrats altogether.

“He's gonna flip,” anti-Trump Republican strategist Rick Wilson posted on X on Thursday. Similarly former Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA) posted on X that there was “another betrayal from Fetterman but look on the bright side, we’ll get Republicans to burn their money before Pennsylvania fires him.”

Both men cited a recent article from a publication that specializes in local news and pointed out that Fetterman recently created joint fundraising committees with a Republican from his own state, Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA).

“First spotted by Politico on Wednesday, Common Ground PA was announced as a new joint fundraising committee,” wrote The Center Square's John Cole on Thursday. “Common Ground PA filed with the Federal Election Commission, known as the FEC, on Monday. They list four joint fundraising participants: Every Vote PAC, Pennsylvania Honor, Fetterman for PA, and Friends of Dave McCormick.”

Cole added, “Fetterman is listed as the leadership PAC sponsor for Every Vote PAC, while McCormick is named as the leadership PAC sponsor for Pennsylvania Honor.”

One Republican political consultant explained that it is highly unusual for senators from opposite parties to form joint fundraising committees.

“This would seem to be a very intriguing development, and a further sign of the close coordination on not just policy, but now political issues between Senators McCormick and Fetterman,” Christopher Nicholas, who also published the PA Political Digest, told Cole.. “What most is of interest to me now is who do they want to support through this new joint fundraising committee?”

This is not the first sign Fetterman may leave Democrats altogether. Earlier this month he defended the president who called him his “favorite Democrat” on a podcast with Logan Paul, who also identifies as a Trump supporter.

"Some Democrats now are actually running on the ‘f—— Trump' — I mean literally, that's in some of their commercials, you know, honestly," Fetterman told Paul. "And this idea — and if you call someone on their side as, like, ‘they're fascists,’ then that means that people that I know, and I love that voted for him, you know, that must be — they are fascists. And they are not. These are good people. They love our country no less than they do. It's just having different views and, you know, trying to find a way forward in a deeply divided country... I refuse to do that. People forgot that we're all Americans, and we actually need each other."

By contrast, in June Fetterman parted ways with Trump over the president’s then-negotiation with Iran. Fetterman, a staunch supporter of Israel, has supported American military action against the Middle Eastern country.

"Nuclear dust, that’s the reason why we’re here. This is why I was reasoned and OK with setting myself politically on fire to be the only Democrat for the last 90 days voting against these war powers acts. Presidents always talk about their legacy. At this point, if you cave just for political convenience, what kind of legacy is that?" Fetterman told Emily Jacobs at The Jewish Insider.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet


John Fetterman

Fetterman Flatters Trump But Denies Rumors He Will Join Republicans

Sen.John Fetterman’s complex relationship with President Donald Trump has raised many eyebrows on the left, with some Democrats worrying he could switch sides, giving Senate Republicans a greater advantage in their current narrow majority.

Fetterman, the senior senator from Pennsylvania, was the first Senate Democrat to join Trump’s Truth Social website and the first Democratic Senator to visit Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the 2024 election.

“President Trump invited me to meet, and I accepted. I’m the Senator for all Pennsylvanians— not just Democrats in Pennsylvania,” Fetterman declared, Reuters reported.

He was also the first Democratic Senator to call for President Joe Biden to pardon Trump.

“The Trump hush money and Hunter Biden cases were both bullshit, and pardons are appropriate,” Fetterman wrote in his first Truth Social post, the UK’s The Times reported last month. “Weaponising the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division.”

On Monday, he became the last Senate Democrat to sign on to a resolution condemning Trump’s pardons of over 1500 people convicted of crimes related to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the insurrection.

According to the Associated Press, “Fetterman has warmed to Trump so much that some in his party are quietly disavowing the man they supported in 2022, when the Pennsylvanian easily won a three-candidate primary and survived a stroke amid a high-pressure campaign to become the only Democrat to flip a Republican Senate seat that year.”

And he’s embraced Trump’s proposed Greenland grab, calling it “a responsible conversation.”

On Monday, Fetterman rejected the party switching rumors, declaring those who suggest he has made a “rightward” move are wrong: “it’s just happened not to be true.”

“I’ve been record too, saying, I am not gonna become a Republican, you know, although maybe some people might be happy on one side, but I would make a pretty terrible Republican because, you know, pro-choice, pro-really strong immigration pro-LGBTQ, uh, you know, just pretty, like, I don’t think I’d be a good fit, so I’m not gonna change my party.”

“I can’t keep chasing down every last thing that’s online, because they’re just happen not to be true and just look at my votes, look at the things that I haven’t changed,” Fetterman insisted.

Watch below or at this link:

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

John Fetterman Victory Speech

What Is Behind John Fetterman's Rightward Pivot?

On Thursday, Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman became the first Senate Democrat to meet with Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s problematic pick to lead the Department of Defense. Oddly, Fetterman hasn’t ruled out supporting Hegseth, whose own mother once wrote him an angry email calling him an abuser of women. (She now says she doesn’t hold the same view of her son.)

“He could theoretically become the head of the Defense Department,” Fetterman told Politico in explaining his logic. “I've discovered in my time in D.C. that that’s important. And, ‘Are you having a conversation with someone?’ I don’t know why that’s shocking.”

Fetterman also said he’s aware of “some” allegations against Hegseth. Those include, but are not limited to, Hegseth allegedly raping a woman in 2017—Hegseth said the sex was consensual—and supposedly drinking on the job. But that hasn’t stopped the Pennsylvania senator from being open to joining Republicans in confirming the Fox News host.

Fetterman said he’s not sure why it’d be “controversial” to meet with Hegseth—and even suggested the two might find common ground on some issues. And on its own, meeting with the likely next defense secretary may not be a strange thing. But that’s not the only eyebrow-raising action Fetterman has taken recently.

On Wednesday, Fetterman apparently became the first Democratic senator to join Truth Social, Trump’s social media platform. And in his debut post, he made the surprising call to pardon Trump in his New York hush money case.

Fetterman also said he was a “hard YES” on confirming Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York as the next ambassador to the United Nations.

Stefanik isn’t the first Trump Cabinet pick that Fetterman has voiced his support for. In November, he said he would vote to confirm Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida as the next secretary of state.

Once a self-described progressive, Fetterman has pivoted to the right since winning his 2022 Senate election. But backing Trump’s Cabinet picks isn’t the first time the senator has found himself on the outs with the progressive movement. He’s one of many Democrats to make stringently pro-Israel statements during its ongoing war in Gaza. In that, he found allies in the Democratic Party, such as New York Rep. Ritchie Torres.

However, Fetterman is making the case that he hasn’t abandoned progressivism—but that the movement dumped him.

“I didn’t leave the label, it left me on that,” Fetterman said in a June interview with comedian Bill Maher.

But a review of his history with the label makes his change appear more cynical in nature. After all, the senator happily embraced the label for years and courted the endorsement of independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, when Fetterman successfully ran to be Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor. Now, though, Fetterman seems more keen to taunt progressivism than to embrace it.

It’s a convenient scapegoat for Fetterman to blame the left for his shift to the right. It keeps his name in the limelight while making him seem to be some sort of brave truth-teller who isn’t afraid to stand up to his own party.

However, he might find it hard to have it both ways, with both parties, especially during a time when center-left and establishment Democrats are coming under fire for frequently losing elections and major policy fights.

At least for now, Fetterman hasn’t made clear what his end goal is in fighting his own party’s interests. But in the short-term, he is apparently trying to fill the void of the non-Republican rabble-rouser now that independent Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are leaving.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

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