Anyone who followed the campaign of current Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz could conclude from his stilted campaign appearances and debates that he was an extreme left-wing progressive who would continue to infect our politics with woke statements and identity politics.
Many of us had to admit that some of his comments were a complete surprise. Granted, he showed up in workout clothes on his first day on the job in the Senate and is still odd, but he has not routinely made the far-left arguments of his Democratic colleagues Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
Would you have expected headlines like these? I certainly didn’t:
Surprise:
John Fetterman 2.0 brings bulldozer to Alma Mater Harvard during Yeshiva University commencement speech
Fetterman dunks at AOC for her recent freakout and gets a bonus jab at Biden
“I haven’t woken up”: Fetterman continues to surprise, attacks squatters and violent crime
To a standing ovation at today’s graduation ceremony, Senator John Fetterman removed his Harvard Crimson hood in outrage at the rampant anti-Semitism here on campus. This is what true leadership looks like!
🎥 @safier pic.twitter.com/2nSG1liuja— Shabbos Kestenbaum (@ShabbosK) May 29, 2024
Don’t get me wrong, he’s not suddenly a Republican, and he’s still a staunch Trump opponent, even though the Biden alternative is a path to our doom, but he says some things that make you think, “Hmmm, that’s fair.” In an appearance on CNN on Wednesday, he said it’s not that he’s changed –the left has:
Senator John Fetterman (D-Penn.) responded to progressive critics’ claims that he was not quite the person people saw him as during his campaign, adding that he had lost the “label” of being a progressive.
“I’m not a progressive, I just called myself a regular Democrat,” Fetterman told CNN’s Dana Bash. “Well, eight years ago I was a progressive, but the situation has changed and I’ve made it very clear that I have not given up that label. That label has [left] I think it’s much more important to focus on Donald Trump rather than on these purity tests and issues like that.”
Unlike many of his fellow Democrats, he actually believes in the security of his borders and in Israel’s right to defend itself:
Bash also asked Fetterman to respond to Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who told CNN on Tuesday that President Biden is using “the same tools as Donald Trump” to ensure border security.
“She’s entitled to her own opinion, but it also seems that some of the harshest words for the president in this situation tend to come from very safe and conservative areas. In Pennsylvania, border security is an important issue and we all believe we should have a secure border, and I’ve never thought it was unreasonable for a Democrat to want to make our border more secure,” he said.
Fetterman has said that along with the right, progressives in his party hoped he would “die” because of his stance on Israel and border security.
Let’s be candid: The guy is still a mystery, and after a Dana Bash question there was full 12 seconds of silence from the Senator from Pennsylvania. Strange. I can’t claim to know what’s going through his mind at any given time. Still, I’ve been surprised by his statements and actions since he won the election. At this point, I’d take him over Chuck Schumer, AOC, and the Squad any day.
