Summary
Sen. John Fetterman faced backlash from progressives after his first post on Truth Social calling the hush-money case against Trump “bullshit” and suggested pardons for both Trump and Hunter Biden.
Fetterman reiterated his stance from recent interviews, arguing such cases erode public trust in institutions.
The response has been divisive, with Trump supporters and progressives both criticizing him.
Fetterman’s broader shifts, including support for Israel and mocking climate activists, have alienated some Democratic supporters while gaining him favor among conservatives.
What the fuck happened to him? He seemed so promising just a few years ago.
Brain damage. He had a stroke a few years ago and switched from liberal to conservative real fast.
He was always like this, he just became more abrasive after the stroke.
We just closed our eyes and looked the other way when he showed himself to be a rabid zionist and assumed he’d grown from when he chased a black man through neighborhood with a shotgun.
You see him go against AIPAC-backed corpo dems in the primary and interpreted some labor rhetoric and putting a hammer and sickle in his profile pic and it’s easy to mislead yourself.
It’s what happens when you don’t do the critical part of critical support.
This is different from Sinoma who simply lied about all of her positions.
I think this is the most charitable interpretation.
He was never particularly liberal… he just had enough money to throw around in grand acts that people assumed he was generous and cared about regular people.
Never trust someone from York county.
Goddamn, either this guy was one hell of a fraud, or brain damage does really cause conservatism.
Brain damage doesn’t cause conservatism. I had a TBI as a teenager and went far left. My experiences in trying to get treatment completely radicalized me.
Was mostly a joke, I too suffered a brain injury a couple years ago and it did nothing but make me more vocal about my opinions (which has folks labelling me far left).
I really do wonder if the second part is a possibility.
Really, you could cut the headline to “Fetterman made his first post on truth social”, and I’d still be disappointed, the rest just put a cherry on top.
I can forgive virtually everything else he’s said… But suggesting Biden grant a pardon to a man who has shown no remorse or even an admission that his alleged crimes might be wrong is so far off the path of wisdom that i dont think its even fair to count his seat “blue”.
I can’t believe I shook this guy’s hand at a campaign rally once. Fuck you and your hoodie, Fetterman.
Should throw your shoe at him next time.
Classic George w bush moment
It should happen all the time.
Every time there’s a politician speaking in front of a crowd, everyone in that crowd has a couple of projectiles strapped to their feet.
You probably can’t smuggle in a bag of rotten tomatoes, or a pie, let alone some kind of weapon, but there you’ve got those two things right on your feet.
Maybe you get in there and you decide, hey you really like your shoes, you don’t want to lose one, so you find something else. A pair of sunglasses. A watch. A hat. Maybe you look around and find something at the venue, like a little plastic display placard.
First of all, none of those things are going to throw as well as a shoe. You’re going to sacrifice your distance and your accuracy just because you don’t want to walk home with one shoe. Well there’s no point in doing shit if you’re going to miss, so better to just use the shoe.
Second of all, the shoe is a clear message. You throw your watch up there, he’s likely to say hey thanks for the great watch. Even if you threw both of your shoes, they might say hey thanks for the free pair of shoes. But if you throw just one shoe, that’s a clear fuck you.
I love how much thought you put into this
Fettermen Sinema Manchin
Three bullet points on a list
Don’t forget democrat joe Lieberman who single-handedly killed the single payer option when obamacare was being voted on. The bought and paid for insurance industry shill joe Lieberman. It’s a shame he’s dead, he deserves the Luigi treatment.
What a fucking disappointment.
Don’t know why people were disappointed, this is who he’s always been
Did that stroke cause a personality change? Seems like he is suffering from magabrain.
Congrats to Fetterman on being the New Joe Manchin. He’ll never have to make another fundraising call again-- must feel good.
I imagine he has a bright future as the Dem or republican frontrunner in a future presidential election.
Fetterman can’t go Joe Manchin even if he wanted to. His party affiliation wouldn’t single-handedly swing contol of the Senate like Manchin. He’s not in a position where he can all but single-handedly decide if Democrat bills survive or fail. He has no political leverage. The Democrats aren’t going to throw money to save him because doing so would not impact their ability to control the Senate or conduct business.
If Fetterman tries to go full Manchin, he had better hope the GOP are willing to prop him up, because Dems are just going to cut their losses and focus their money on more winnable races.
because Dems are just going to cut their losses and focus their money on more winnable races
Fettermans got AIPAC backing. He’s in a heavily jewish district, which is why he talks so much about Israel. Dems wouldnt DARE to cut their losses with Fetterman, he’s a made man.
Please don’t equate Judaism with support for Israel. Some of the most anti Israel people are Jews. Fuck the zionists.
- a Jew
I don’t think kraeskin was equating the two. At worst, that comment expresses the political force that Fetterman is leveraging by messaging toward a group that is primed to be (unfortunately) significantly Zionist due to Israeli/Zionist propaganda.
In other words, Israel is the primary actor conflating Judaism and Zionism (as I’m sure we both know). kraeskin is saying that Fetterman is aware of the prevalence of that lie (whether he thinks it to be a lie or not) in the Jewish American population of his district, and is exploiting it for political footing. That doesn’t mean that kraeskin thinks that lie is true, only that they are aware that it is prevalent.
I skimmed your argument below and I don’t see much of anything that contradicts my more charitable reading of the above, though I am welcome to examples.
We’re talking the reality of statistics here, even if they tread on taboos. Across jewish american respondents theres high support for both the state of israel generally, and israels actions in palestine. Isnt there.
So we end up with hard truths. Stats are stats, and for the Fettermans of the world-- money is money, when used as bribes to purchase political outcomes like brutally silencing students and professors, and news commentators expressing their right of political free speech. I worry about the very real bad outcomes for them more than the possible hurt feeling of a minority portion of religious group. You want to be mad at someone, be mad at the far right of that group for their self-abasing terrorism.
And where is the sympathy for muslims in general and muslim americans specifically? I havent seen anything but bashing of them in a long time, from both parties. Thats unamerican. Are you worried at all for them?
I hear very little sympathy for the crushing of our constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech, and thats unamercian. I’m tired of it. So feel free to wring your hands on your cause, and I’ll wring my hands on mine, That IS American.
Or its supposed to be anyway.
There’s a large contingent of anti Zionist Jews in America. Stop conflating Judaism with Zionism.
62% of American jews say the way Israel is carrying out its revenge on all Palestnians for Hamas’s actions in October is “acceptable”. 33% say its “unacceptable.” 5% unsure.
Draw your own conclusions from those statistical facts, but dont tell me how I’m allowed or disallowed to view that data, and wrap insinuations and accusations in that suit your narrative. Thats not your business and I have politcal free speech. Facts are facts.
What I dont hear from the broader jewish community is sympathy or support for Muslims, I’ll tell you that straight up. Are Palestinians coequal human beings worthy of rights the same as every other human, goy or not? I’d like to hear you explicitely say it before I take you at all seriously. I’ve been asked for a year if I condemn Hamas oct 7 attacks, so I’d say my question of you is more than fair.
Removed by mod
so he understands that trump is guilty, of treason, and he wants him off the hook.
Post summary says he’s calling for a pardon on the campaign finance fraud case (the porn star hush money). So assuming that’s an accurate summary he’s not calling for a pardon on treason. Also it’s a state crime so it’s not one the president can pardon anyway.
ohhh I didnt read to clarify as I figured it was the only federal charges that were outstanding. Thank you for putting me straight on this issue. So its just as it always is, theater.
Things looked like we might finally see justice, but after this victory, I think he got away free. Pardon or not.
I think those advocating on pardoning him now think that this would remove his incentive to turn DOJ into his personal agency, but he likely will do that anyway no matter what.
I hate to tell you but this isn’t ending then or anytime soon.
Maybe the public is right to distrust institutions.
This dude was pretty wacky from the get go. It was funny watching people flock to him like dumbasses to a flame.
There will always be just enough Democrats like him to fuck us over. Every time, without exception.
It’s almost like it’s INTENTIONAL or something!
Shit. You’re gonna piss off the libs by pointing this out.
Libs will be pissed no matter what these days. Either the Dems are controlled opposition or they’re very good at looking like controlled opposition.
I wonder what happens to a party without core values that can’t be trusted?
Brain damage?
He won’t deny that.
Been a fraud since his pro zionist stance
“Just elect local progressives to form the future of the democratic party! Maybe next election season you’ll get one!”
- Local “progressive” was never that progressive, especially to non-whites the media made it look that way and blame his stroke, and is now a Trump supporting fascist once he’s in office.
At some point Charlie Brown stopped trying to kick the football, we should too. Better than Dr. Oz, but so was any random person in Pennsylvania.
But but but if we just vote harder for progressives we’ll get all the things democrats promise we just need more democrats elected!
Democrats get elected and then proceed to 180
