Senator John Fetterman – once a darling of the left but increasingly seeking to position himself as a bridge to the far-right – on Sunday doubled down on advice for fellow Democrats loathing the thought of the looming second Donald Trump presidency: “You gotta chill out.”
“You know, like the constant … freak out – it’s not helpful,” Fetterman said.
Fetterman, who recently joined Trump’s Truth Social network, advised Democrats to “pack a lunch, pace yourself, because he hasn’t even taken office yet” for a second four-year term beginning in January 2025.
The Pennsylvania senator, who has largely stripped himself of his progressive credentials as the party attempts to reposition itself after Trump beat Kamala Harris in the 5 November election, was asked by ABC News’s Jonathan Karl for his take on the defeat.
“You have a singular political talent. It’s un-undeniable,” Fetterman responded, referring to Trump’s return to the White House after the Republican lost to Democrat rival Joe Biden in 2020.
Despite a chaotic first term that led some historians to rank Trump as the worst president of all time, Fetterman said Trump has the potential to be good in the Oval Office. And he said he wouldn’t necessarily root against him as a Democrat.
“If you’re rooting against the president, you are rooting against the nation,” Fetterman said. “And I’m not ever going to be where I want a president to fail. So, country first.
“It’s become maybe like a cliche … but it happens to be truth.”
In his first post on Trump’s platform on 10 December, Fetterman dismissed Trump’s conviction in New York of criminally falsifying hush money payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels as “bullshit”. He also used the same term to describe Hunter Biden’s conviction on federal charges of lying on gun ownership forms as well as tax evasion and said pardons for both matters were appropriate.
Hunter Biden’s father has pardoned him. Trump has not been pardoned for the New York conviction, which was in state court.
“Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division,” Fetterman added.
Fetterman’s comments on Sunday came as Democrats seek to establish a new political footing that is exacerbating existing generational fissures.
Recently, the progressive New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 35, lost her race to lead Democrats on the House oversight committee that would have given her a powerful platform to direct congressional investigations.
A lobbying power play by the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi handed the position to 74-year-old Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly, symbolically and factually thwarting progressive calls for a generational change in Democrat party leadership.
Fetterman continued that theme on Sunday in his appearance with ABC’s Karl, arguing that he never believed his party’s characterization of Trump as a fascist but accepted that it was Harris’s “prerogative” to use the term as the vice-president ran for the White House.
“It’s not a word that I would use,” he said, “because you put a lot of Democrats, especially in my state, that I know, and I happen to love people that are going to vote for Trump, and they are not fascists.”
Fetterman also called out the use of the word. “Fascism, that’s not a word that regular people, you know, use, you know? I think people are going to decide who is the candidate that’s going to protect and project, you know, my version of the American way of life, and that’s what happened,” Fetterman said.
The senator said he had not spoken to Trump since his election victory but if and when he does, he would say, “Congratulations.’” Then, Fetterman said he would seek to “have an honest conversation of things I would like to – we could work together, and some things we’re going to disagree.”
Fetterman added: “I’d like to avoid the cheap heat and some of the other stuff, but it’s going to be a kooky ride, I’m sure. I try to be a committed, steady voice for Pennsylvania and to remember that we have to find wins in the middle of incredibly divisive times.”
