Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) just confirmed that he will remain a Democrat, but he has no intention of caving to the party’s narratives.
He says he will remain an independent voice in the party while at the same time calling out some of his fellow Democrats for their behavior.
While I know some were hoping he would flip, I believe this is a far better outcome for Republicans.
Since taking office, Fetterman has refused to cave to the party line on just about every big issue, including why Kamala Harris lost the election.
While the campaign and the party faulted Joe Biden for not leaving the race quickly enough, Fetterman threw a dart right at Harris, saying that she lost the race when she called Trump a “fascist.”
He stated, “I don’t know why, and I have always refused to say that.”
The PA Democrat continued, “When Vice President Harris referred to President Trump as a ‘fascist,’ and I knew, absolutely, we lost the plot at that point.”
We all saw the debacle that was the State of the Union (SOTU) address this week.
Democrats were screaming and yelling during the speech like undisciplined children, which Fetterman also called out.
He stated, “I don’t care if it’s a Republican or Democrat, it’s a president. Just don’t do that.”
With all this pushback against his party, you would think that Fetterman might bail on Democrats, but that is not happening.
This week on CNN, Fetterman was asked point-blank if he would register as a Republican and accept an endorsement by President Trump, noting that he is likely to see left-wing challengers when his seat is up for re-election.
Fetterman responded, “What I’m saying, it’s like anyone’s entitled, but it’s very strange if anyone is a Democrat, I’m not sure, it’s like the guy that flipped a red seat and someone now it’s like now my record is solid, solid Democrat.”
In another interview, he added, “I’m not going to switch, but I’m just going to be an independent voice in the Democratic Party. I’m not going to be afraid if people, if there are groups attacking a Democrat, you know the last one in Pennsylvania, to me that’s part of the problem in our party. If you want a Democrat that’s going to call people Nazis or fascists or all these kinds of thing, well, I’m not going to be that guy.”
You have to love the fact that even the media appears to be upset that Fetterman is not taking the party line on every issue. From my standpoint, he is far better for the GOP as a Democrat than a Republican. I love the resistance from within the Democrat Party rather than having a Republican vote “no” on key issues. If this were about control of the Senate, it would be a different conversation, but we won’t truly know that situation until after the 2026 cycle is over (Fetterman’s seat is not up for re-election until 2028).
