Last week, in an interview with POLITICO, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) spoke out against Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) blaming President Joe Biden for Democrats' election losses earlier this month. He's also weighed in on President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet picks, referring to the selection of former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) as "God-tiered kind of trolling," though he does support Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for Secretary of State and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) as ambassador to the United Nations.
On Sunday, Fetterman also spoke about his party's reaction to Trump's win--something he had been warning about for weeks--during his appearance on CNN's "State of the Union."
In response to host Jake Tapper reminding Fetterman that he's said Democrats "shouldn't be 'freaking out' over every single thing that Trump does," the senator doubled down on how he is "absolutely excited" about Rubio and Stefanik, though he considers picks like Gaetz to be "just absolute trolls."
"And that's why Democrats--like, Trump gets the kind of thing--mean, he gets the kind of thing that he wanted, like the freak-out and all of those things. And he hasn't even been--it's still not even not even Thanksgiving yet," Fetterman reminded. "And if we're having meltdowns every tweet or every appointment or all those things, I mean, it's going to be four years," he continued, about four years that hasn't even begun yet.
Fetterman himself also pointed out that he had been warning not just about a Trump win, but that he had been "warning about the jackpot," with Republicans also gaining control of the Senate, keeping control of the House, and conservative judges being a majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, something Fetterman called "the real jackpot."
"So they can run the table right now. And at least for the next two years, those are the things, if you really want to be concerned about that, that they have the absolute ability to run the table, at least for the next two years. And that's what I think we should all be concerned on, not small tweets or random kinds of appointments," Fetterman continued to advise.
FETTERMAN: Dems can’t “freak out” over "every tweet or every appointment" after Trump's victory. "It's still not even Thanksgiving yet... it's going to be four years. pic.twitter.com/IYlMakNOhq
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 17, 2024
After bringing up how Fetterman predicted Vice President Kamala Harris could win Pennsylvania, though she ultimately did not, Tapper asked the senator a question that has thrown Democrats into quite the disarray, "is the Democratic Party still the party of the working class?"
"Well, of course," Fetterman responded, also pointing out that he said about the race that "it's going to be incredibly close," and reminding how Trump had the support from Elon Musk in Pennsylvania and was nearly assassinated in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
"And I do believe that helped move the needle in that too. So Trump came in, in the strongest position, and he carried Pennsylvania and carried all of the swing states. So that's what--that's what's reflected, that he came in a strong position, that--there's going to be a lot of hot takes. There were a lot of hot takes before this election," Fetterman continued. "But it's undeniable here we are now because of a lot of the decisions that were made before the election."
It's curious that while Tapper brought up concerns about the working class, neither he nor Fetterman brought up the angry screed that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) posted to X just days after the election. It led to quite the public outrage from DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison, with Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) as well as Pelosi also taking issue with Sanders' claims, which in part warned that Democrats were no longer the party of the working class.
It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 6, 2024
While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change.
And they’re right. pic.twitter.com/lM2gSJmQFL
A post-election memo from Cygnal, as we covered earlier on Monday, had quite the revelation on this front. "The Republican Party is increasingly multi-racial and working class, with strong support among married adults; the Democratic Party is increasingly a coalition of college-educated and older voters," the memo shared.
Rather than discussing further how Democrats look to be in disarray over this issue and many more, Tapper instead moved on to discussing the U.S. Senate race out of Pennsylvania, where Sen. Bob Casey Jr. and other Democrats have been trying to draw out the race. Since that interview, however, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on Monday that illegal ballots cannot be counted.
That race was called for Republican Sen.-elect Dave McCormick a few days after the election. McCormick also attended freshman orientation, despite Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) initially refusing to let him attend.