Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) on HBO’s “Real Time” with host Bill Maher said the Democratic party has become more extreme. <\/p>\n
BILL MAHER: He is the Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania and he is my friend, Senator John Fetterman is over here. John. Good to see you again. John, you’re wearing your good black. Did you have a speech? Yeah, yeah. SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): I mix it up to, you know. MAHER: Did you have a speech on the Senate floor or something where you had to look your best? No, I like your outfit. I do. So, I read your op-ed today, I think it was, in the Washington Post. And it’s interesting because we often find ourselves sort of in the same place politically, I think. FETTERMAN: Exactly, yeah, where when your values haven’t changed, but the party really has changed and it’s kind of put you at odds. MAHER: Yeah, you used the term increasingly lonely. You said you feel increasingly lonely as a Democrat. Do you want to unburden yourself and tell us about that? FETTERMAN: Yeah, well, I mean, some people think it’s like a glamorous life, and it is not, at least for me. You know, we have — MAHER: Plainly. FETTERMAN: I mean, from a lonely perspective, you know, things that used to be part of our values here as a party, that they’re shifted. Now, whether it’s like specifically Israel and the Jewish community, and now also the border security. And then also recently, the two longest shutdowns in history. And I’ve had to vote against the caucus. I don’t enjoy that. But we used to be the party that would always refuse to shut the government down. And now we now have shut it down and dropped a lot of mass chaos. And I just couldn’t be a part of that. MAHER: Yeah, I think we get the same charge levied against us that we’re picking fights with the left. We’re not picking fights. We’re just not avoiding them… MAHER: This is a watershed mark, a moment in American history where we should pay attention. And my guess is because AI is going to be taking everybody’s jobs, communism is only going to get more popular. SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): Well, I sure hope not, because, you know, like if our party, it’s like that, it’s that expression, you know, bad ideas refuse to die. And now that’s coming back. And a lot of this, the Trump and the backlash is making more and more things possible in the Democratic Party. And I’m going to consistently going to resist that kinds of extremes and those extremes that cost us in 2024. We all have to remember that we need to have an election against both sides. We’re accountable for both sides and these and these kinds of states that really depend to deliver for the presidency. And that’s why I refuse to be an engaged. I know I know how to pay the bills as a Democrat right now. And my colleagues and people that are running, whether for the Senate or the House, they are literally running on f*ck Trump. I mean, that’s literally they have campaign commercials that. And it’s absurd. And we are getting to that point. And I refuse to engage in that extreme, those terms. We have to find a better way forward. And I’ve been punished to try to find value in certain views. Now, like for the ballroom, you know, we’ve talked about that. I don’t care about the ballroom. MAHER: I don’t either. It’s so stupid. It’s a Rorschach test of whether you just hate. FETTERMAN: Yeah MAHER: Because first of all, like we saw with the assassination attempt a couple of weeks ago, what America probably does need. You know what the problem is? I said it’s either today on the podcast, which I think is on next week. It’s the word ballroom. It sounds good. Ballroom sounds like, you know, fops or pirouetting around. And it’s just if they called it the State Dinner National Center, it would be different. But this is America. And we don’t want people sitting in tents. FETTERMAN: Yeah, I mean, it’s just it’s just, I mean, you know, I was I was two tables away at the white, the White House Correspondents Dinner. I’ve witnessed this. MAHER: Two tables from the killing? From the attempt, you mean? FETTERMAN: Yeah. And that’s I had to see that I’m like the entire line of succession was right there and realized that we’ve put put there’s real danger there. We got really lucky there for a lot of reasons. So now we need to have a more secure — more secure for to do these kinds of events. But I don’t care about, you know, just build it. I mean, he won’t even be president when it’s if it’s even finished. MAHER: Yeah. I mean, concentrate on the big things, the things that really matter. FETTERMAN: Exactly. MAHER: That’s what I’m trying to say here. So there’s no there’s no truth that you’re actually going to switch parties because I know Trump has offered you. I mean, you said I would be a sh*tty Republican. FETTERMAN: Yeah. Yeah. That’s you know, and, you know, if I ever decide to change and I won’t, I’ll be, you know, have me on and I will announce that. But it’s not going to — it’s like, you know, I’m a committed Democrat, even though if I vote 93 percent of the time MAHER: With the Democrats, FETTERMAN: I thought we were supposed to be a big tent party. So that’s I’m not really sure how I become an issue for any of the Democrats, just to having some different views in these other issues…. FETTERMAN: As someone that is a committed Democrat, I find myself isolated by my party as things continue. I’m going to just have play, you know, ball strikes and just — MAHER: Yeah. OK. Well, you know, I’m your fan because the Democratic Party certainly needs someone to keep them honest. And it’s the man in the shorts. Thank you, John. John Fetterman, he’s going to tower over me now. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n