Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman isn’t backing down after learning a progressive candidate running for Senate in Michigan told donors he wanted to primary Fetterman and “put one ogre on a pike.”
Appearing on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Fetterman brushed off the personal attack with a laugh—and then launched a few sharp broadsides of his own against the candidate, Abdul El-Sayed.
“I never worked as a male model. Call me Senator Shrek, whatever,” Fetterman said during the interview. “But this guy is really the Pontiac Plattner, and now he’s really running to be the head of our emerging pro-Hamas wing here in the party.”
The Pennsylvania senator admitted he was baffled by the sheer intensity of the backlash coming from the party’s left wing, saying he wasn’t sure what votes or positions had managed to set off “the little guy” so severely.
“For me, politically, some of the things that he has said or done are unacceptable,” Fetterman noted. “I’m not really sure what I’ve done or voted for that has offended the little guy so much.”
Fetterman also pushed back on the traditional political wisdom that the Democratic Party should act as a “big tent” accommodating every viewpoint, pointing specifically to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
“This is not a big tent,” Fetterman argued. “Abolish prisons, abolish the border, abolish the presidency, abolish the Pentagon—I mean, these are crazy people.”
He called on lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to step up and rein in extreme elements within their own movements, pointing out that failing to do so leads to political misfires.
“These same people, like Bernie Sanders and others, created the Plattner disaster,” Fetterman said. “Isn’t it incumbent on us, on the Republican and Democratic sides, to police our own ranks? That’s what I’m willing to do.”
When host Joe Kernen asked if all this frustration meant Fetterman might eventually jump ship to the GOP, the senator quickly put that idea to rest.
“How could I be? I couldn’t be a Republican,” Fetterman insisted, maintaining that he remains a “committed Democrat.”
READ: Federal Court To Hear Dispute Over CBP Seizure Of Journalist Max Blumenthal’s Phones
Please make a small donation to the Tampa Free Press to help sustain independent journalism. Your contribution enables us to continue delivering high-quality, local, and national news coverage.
Sign up: Subscribe to our free newsletter for a curated selection of top stories delivered straight to your inbox.
