Wednesday on FNC’s “The Will Cain Show,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) explained why he had not changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat.
Fetterman told host Will Cain that his votes likely would not change if he switched parties and acknowledged they have damaged his standing with the Democratic Party’s base.
“I’m curious, what do you think your and there’s been some people even on this channel that have asked you, would you ever switch over to being a Republican?” Cain asked. “And you said, no, I’m a Democrat. But I’m curious why. Like, what do you think — and you don’t know everything that I believe, but what would you suspect would be our biggest point of disagreement. What keeps you a Democrat?”
Fetterman replied, “It’s just I’m a Democrat. And, honestly, if I changed my party this afternoon, my votes really aren’t going to change. It’s not much different for those things. And now, for me, I just — it’s — again, that’s why I’m trying to describe. In our more and more polarized time, I try to be the voice of reason. And people stop me in public all the time just to appreciate that, whether it’s a Democrat — and now, increasingly, a lot of Democrats — I mean, Republicans stop me now too. My parents, all my families are Republicans. I grew up with them in a conservative part of Pennsylvania. I never saw Fox News or people that watch Fox News or Republicans as the enemy or that they’re bad people and they’re trying to destroy our Constitution or any of those things.”
“I strongly reject that,” he continued. “So, for me, where I’m at in this space here is someone that represents Pennsylvania. And there’s going to be things. Like, for example, the strike in Iran, that was absolutely the right thing. And I was the only Democrat that can support those things. Why can’t we all agree that destroying the Iranian regime would be good for the entire region? Standing with Israel. Secure our border. These are reasonable things. I would also refuse to shut our government down always. Always, I refuse to do that. Pay everybody, especially like the military and those folks.”
“Those folks that had that magnificent action in Venezuela, could you imagine those people weren’t getting paid for those 45 days that our government was shut down and those things,” Fetterman added. “Now, many of those decisions hurt my standing in parts of my base. But I would rather be just play it straight, rather than just try to just maybe pander or just say things that I don’t actually believe in myself.”
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