Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman didn’t hold back his thoughts on a scandal-plagued Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in Maine, though he firmly drew the line at campaigning for the Republican incumbent instead.
U.S. Marine veteran Graham Platner won the Democratic primary in Maine on Tuesday and will face Republican Senator Susan Collins in November. However, Platner’s campaign has been dogged by a string of controversies. The issues started with a now-removed Totenkopf tattoo, which Platner claimed he didn’t realize was a prominent Nazi symbol.
He has also faced reports of making distasteful comments about American soldiers and exchanging sexually explicit text messages with multiple women despite being married. That information came to light after his wife, Amy Gertner, revealed it to a former campaign staffer who was conducting background research to anticipate attacks from political opponents.
During a Friday appearance on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle,” Fetterman openly criticized his party’s new nominee.
“If he was a Republican, how would Democrats describe him?” Fetterman asked. “And the descriptions would be accurate for all of those things. They would declare that this guy is a degenerate. You know, he cheats on his wife and he has Nazi tattoos. You know, we’re the party of pearl-clutching, and now we’ve embraced it because, well, we don’t have a choice.”
He added that people might try to excuse the controversies simply because Platner has a “D” after his name, before stating, “But he’s not even a Democrat.”
Despite his harsh words for Platner, Fetterman made it clear he isn’t switching sides in the Maine race. Host Laura Ingraham directly asked the senator if he would be willing to campaign for Susan Collins if she requested his help.
Fetterman shot the idea down quickly.
“No, of course not,” Fetterman replied. “No, no. I mean, I am a Democrat. Senator Collins, we have different views.”
The matchup in Maine comes as the broader battle for the upper chamber heats up. Republicans currently control the Senate with a 53-47 majority, meaning Democrats will need to net four seats this fall to retake control.
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