John Fetterman is the Democrat Senator from Pennsylvania.
At least I think he’s a Democrat. Now I’m not so sure.
Fetterman, who has experienced serious emotional issues, including clinical depression, was elected to the Senate in 2022. He was assumed to be a hardline Democrat partisan.
But, for reasons that I am not aware of (I wonder if he is) that designation seems to be less and less accurate.
The latest two examples of why can be found in Fallon Roth’s article for the Philadelphia Inquirer, via msn.com, titled “John Fetterman joins Truth Social and says a pardon is ‘appropriate’ for Trump’s Manhattan hush money case”:
Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) joined Truth Social, President-elect Donald Trump’s social media platform, on Tuesday and his first order of business on the site was to call for a pardon for Trump in his New York hush money case.
“The Trump hush money and Hunter Biden cases were both b-, and pardons are appropriate,” Fetterman said in his first Truth Social post Tuesday evening.
Fetterman’s participation on the platform is another example of the junior senator’s signature bluntness and tendency to stray from party lines, offering rare glimmers of bipartisanship in Washington, D.C. Since Election Day, Fetterman has expressed his support for some of Trump’s picks for the incoming administration and said he admired billionaire Elon Musk, a staunch Trump ally.
“Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division,” Fetterman added in the Truth Social post, in response to a headline from an MSNBC story on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s response to Trump’s motion to dismiss the hush money case. In May, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to cover up a scheme connected to the 2016 presidential election.
Supporting Trump’s cabinet picks? Calling out Manhattan DA alvin bragg’s overtly ridiculous, disgusting vendetta against former/future President Donald Trump? Does that sound like a partisan Democrat to you?
When Democrats fielded then-Lt. Governor Fetterman for the senate seat he now holds, I think it would be safe to say they did not anticipate the openly bipartisan – maybe even Republican-leaning – stances he seems to have no problem taking. Just like Joe Manchin, the retiring Democrat-turned-Independent Senator from West Virginia.
What does this hold for the future? Is this a passing situation or is Fetterman the new Manchin? Maybe even the new Benjamin Nighthorse Campbell, the Colorado Senator who was elected as a Democrat but then changed parties (I don’t expect it…but, then again, I didn’t expect him to join Truth Social either)?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm…..
