As Democrats struggle with how to navigate a second Trump administration, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has seemingly decided it’s better to work with the GOP than against it.
Fetterman’s early embrace of certain Cabinet nominees chosen by President-elect Donald Trump is in stark contrast to other Democrats‘ slower and, at times, more critical approach.
This week, the Pennsylvania lawmaker was the first Democrat to meet with Trump’s embattled defense secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth, who faces allegations of sexual assault and workplace drinking, each of which he denies. The meeting was notable since Fetterman isn’t a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the panel that will hold Hegseth’s confirmation hearing.
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He then chastised party members for loudly opposing Hegseth, as well as former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services nominee.
“Those individuals can vent or rant on Twitter, but I’m here to have conversations, and I think I’m just doing my job,” he said during an interview with CNN.
“I’m not sure why it would be controversial to anybody,” Fetterman said of meeting with Hegseth.
This week, Fetterman also became the first Democrat to join Trump’s social media platform Truth Social.
“The Trump hush money and Hunter Biden cases were both bulls***, and pardons are appropriate,” he wrote in his first post, suggesting that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was politically motivated in prosecuting Trump. The president-elect was ultimately convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records, while Hunter Biden was convicted on tax and gun charges that President Joe Biden has since pardoned.
“Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division,” Fetterman continued.
Fetterman’s defense of the president is not unusual. He’s been one of his biggest supporters on Capitol Hill, even as Democrats called on him to drop out of the presidential race. However, Fetterman has made his openness to Trump, part of a larger centrist rebrand, more apparent since his election.
Fetterman also showed support for Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump’s pick as administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and his one-time 2022 Pennsylvania Senate rival.
“If Dr. Oz is about protecting and preserving Medicare and Medicaid, I’m voting for the dude,” he posted on X.
Fetterman embraced other Cabinet nominees, including Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the United Nations nominee, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Trump’s secretary of state nominee.
“Always was a hard YES for @EliseStefanik but it was a pleasure to have a conversation,” he wrote on X after meeting with the New York lawmaker.
Most other Democrats have not been so decisive in saying where they stand on Trump’s nominees ahead of the confirmation hearings in January, though Rubio, in particular, is expected to attract bipartisan support.
“My colleague, Sen. Marco Rubio, is a strong choice and I look forward to voting for his confirmation,” Fetterman posted about the Florida senator.
The willingness to cross the aisle, despite Trump being Joe Biden’s election rival, doesn’t surprise political experts who have followed Fetterman’s career.
“Sen. Fetterman is an always-newsy, hard-to-pin-down guy, and he likes it that way,” said Christopher Nicholas, a veteran Republican political consultant and publisher of the PA Political Digest newsletter. “And he knows intuitively that a decent percentage of his 2022 voters went for Trump this year, especially in Western Pa.”
Sam Chen, principal director of the strategy firm the Liddell Group and a former staffer to retired Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, suggested Fetterman is simply keeping with his past reputation as a maverick.
“I don’t know that he’s actually trying to warm up to Trump or take the mantle of a moderate, but just in the sense that he’s focused on governing,” Chen said. “And he’s always, even in Pennsylvania, he was always known for just speaking his mind.”
Fetterman’s office didn’t respond to a Washington Examiner request for comment.
Chris Borick, a professor of political science at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, pointed to Fetterman’s willingness to buck the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and rebuke pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses as an example of the senator’s independent streak.
During his 2022 Senate campaign, Fetterman signaled his strong support for Israel and other heterodox stances that divide Democrats, including fracking. However, his campaign also presented Fetterman to the public as an unabashed progressive.
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“It predates the election, his pivot, if you will, away from being a darling of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to an official that seems to be much more interested in appealing to a more centrist and working-class demographic,” said Borick, who also serves as director of the Muhlenberg Institute of Public Opinion.
Although he isn’t up for reelection until 2028, also a presidential year, Fetterman is likely adjusting to the reality that Trump not only won Pennsylvania last month but also the ousting of fellow Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) by Republican Dave McCormick.
Trump won the rest of the six other battleground states and the popular vote as the GOP flipped the Senate and kept narrow control of the House, in a stark rebuke of the Democratic Party.
“Anyone running for statewide office in Pennsylvania recognizes that it is a highly competitive state and that you’re going to have to attract voters who are perhaps unaffiliated, which is 15% of the state’s voters, in addition to attracting voters from your own base,” said Berwood Yost, director of the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania.
“And I think one of the lessons of 2024 is that voters were looking for relief and were looking for government to get something done, particularly around the economy and the cost of living,” Yost continued.
Fetterman’s willingness to meet with some of Trump’s nominees indicates he is willing to carry that mantle in a legislative body that is meant to advise and consent the president on his Cabinet picks, but that does not necessarily mean he will vote in favor of the more controversial nominees.
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“There are certain nominees where their nomination into that position is a direct threat to the oath of that office. And this would have been Matt Gaetz, for example. I would argue this is Tulsi Gabbard, that her becoming director of national intelligence is a direct violation of everything that position stands for,” said Chen. “And I think the U.S. Senate has a responsibility to block that nomination, and I think Fetterman will probably vote that way as well.”
“I think Pete Hegseth is towing this line a little bit, notice that Fetterman hasn’t said he’s going to vote for him,” Chen added.
“I would not be surprised if he does all the due diligence aspects and plays it out, and in the end votes against some of these nominees on grounds that he could, at that point, say, ‘Look, I listened to them and in the end think they’re not up to par for whatever reasons,’” added Borick.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
