A group of former campaign and Senate staffers for John Fetterman say they will soon begin dropping damaging stories about the Pennsylvania Democrat. Many of his constituents are already fed up.
Transcript
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Senior senator from Pennsylvania, Democrat John Fetterman, is increasingly isolated from the people who elected him. He faces criticism for cozying up to Republicans and for publicly breaking with his party. NPR congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt traveled to Pennsylvania to hear from his constituents directly.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAR HORN HONKING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Whoo.
BARBARA SPRUNT, BYLINE: Cars honk as people gather along a main road in Allentown, waving signs protesting the GOP-controlled Congress. The group is steadfastly anti-Trump, but it’s a Democrat that’s on everyone’s mind today – Senator John Fetterman.
VICK LINDQUIST: I voted for him. I donated money to his campaign. I feel like I’ve been stabbed in the back as a Pennsylvanian.
SPRUNT: That’s Vick Lindquist, a Democrat who lives nearby. Lindquist points to Fetterman’s support of various Trump nominees and the president’s war in Iran.
LINDQUIST: It’s very – I can’t even put it into words. I’m so disappointed in him. So disappointed.
SPRUNT: Rod Dougherty says he feels the same. He talked about a recent Wall Street Journal report that the senator often skips hearings and meetings with constituents.
ROD DOUGHERTY: He doesn’t seem to want to do the job, at least based on everything that his ex aides are telling us. He should pack up his bags and go.
SPRUNT: NPR has not independently confirmed the reporting, but Fetterman told CNN it was a hit piece from disgruntled staffers. Fifty some miles away in rural southeastern PA, Ren says she remembers being excited to vote for Fetterman four years ago.
REN: You really felt like he was fighting for you.
SPRUNT: But over time, she said he lost her trust, particularly when he voted alongside Republicans last year to end the government shutdown, going against Democrats’ strategy.
REN: I feel like he’s betraying Democratic Pennsylvanians and independents who support him. The last email that I sent to him says, please step aside and let someone else have your job who will do the job as they’re elected to do. And he’s not doing the job that he was elected to do.
SPRUNT: Democrat Dan Grzybek, Allegheny County councilman, says he now directs constituents to other congressional offices because they get so little help from Fetterman’s office.
DAN GRZYBEK: I can’t think of a single event that I’ve seen John at since he was elected in 2022. We can’t find you anywhere. We can’t get assistance from you. But yet you can go on Fox News. You can fly out to Israel multiple times and can appear on Bill Maher, right? How is this helping Pennsylvanians?
SPRUNT: Grzybek says voters stood behind Fetterman as he endured a stroke ahead of the election and a later hospitalization with clinical depression.
GRZYBEK: Folks were more than willing to give him as much time as he needed to recover from that stroke, both physically and mentally. And it was really only after that point, whenever he was casting votes and engaging in rhetoric that was very contrary to the values in which he ran on, was whenever folks really started to get disenchanted with him.
SPRUNT: Fetterman’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment. His most recent public appearance was done by video at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. Here’s part of what he said.
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JOHN FETTERMAN: I’m always going to reject the extremes in socialism and that anti-American way of life.
SPRUNT: Christopher Beem, a political science professor at Penn State, says Fetterman’s appearance caused outrage among Democrats.
CHRISTOPHER BEEM: It’s a big strategy for this election for the Republicans. You know, they say common sense versus communism or common sense versus crazy. He said words that directly fit with the Republican strategy for ’26. That’s bad for Democrats.
SPRUNT: He says there’s been speculation that Fetterman could switch parties.
BEEM: He said, no, I’m not going to switch. All right, well then what are you doing (laughter)? And why are you doing it?
SPRUNT: Fetterman has pushed back on the speculation, saying he wouldn’t switch unless the Democratic Party puts no aid for Israel in its platform. Democratic State Representative and House majority whip Mike Schlossberg says Fetterman’s votes may sometimes skew a little more conservative, but they’re still overall in line with the party.
MIKE SCHLOSSBERG: He’s not a Republican. Like, I don’t actually think his votes have really changed all that much from where he got in. It’s how he’s chosen to advertise those votes and the way he’s chosen to be intentionally trollish to certain progressives. This is still a pro-trans, pro-LGBT U.S. senator. Like, his voting record clearly doesn’t fit within the Republican Party mold.
SPRUNT: But as Schlossberg and many of Fetterman’s constituents say, he no longer fits within the Democratic mold either.
Barbara Sprunt, NPR News, Allentown, Pennsylvania.
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