John Fetterman Pushes Back Against Claims He’s A Lazy Senator, Bad Democrat

Filed 1h ago · Via HuffPost · The Buffoon Desk

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Fig Leaf Rag

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Presidio of Monterey · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman defended his standing in the Democratic Party at the Texas Tribune Festival, rejecting reports from the Wall Street Journal and a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial branding him disengaged, and pointing instead to state funding projects he's secured. He said he has 'no reason' to join Republicans, citing his votes with Democrats on most partisan matters, even as he introduced GOP Senator Dave McCormick at a midterm convention weeks earlier.

Nearly two-thirds of Pennsylvania Democrats view Fetterman unfavorably, according to a recent Times/Inquirer/Siena poll, following his breaks with the party on Iran, Israel, government funding, and Trump nominees. He cast the deciding vote against curbing Trump's use of force in Iran last week, and said he's waiting until after the midterms to decide whether he'll run for reelection in 2028.

Fetterman compared his position to Texas Republican John Cornyn, who lost his primary to a more ideologically pure challenger, framing purity tests as the real threat to big-tent parties. He said if Democrats want to expel him, 'they're always entitled to do that.'

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A senator who spends a festival keynote listing all the ways he votes against his own party while insisting he's a loyal member of it is not so much defending his position as narrating his exit interview in real time. Two-thirds of his own state's Democrats can't stand him, and his answer is to bring up a Republican's primary loss as a cautionary tale, which is a strange flex from someone claiming he isn't halfway out the door. Wait till the midterms, he says. Most folks watching already have.

Source: Read the original at HuffPost → Scored: Fig Leaf Rag · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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