Fetterman Breaks Ranks: Dems ‘Need to Own the Shutdown’

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., openly criticized his own party‘s refusal to reopen the government on CNN’s “State of the Union,” stating that Democrats “really need to own the shutdown.“

“Fundamentally, I’m deeply distressing that 42 million Americans are going to lose their SNAP benefits. And now that’s one of the big reasons why I refuse to shut our government down,” Fetterman said.

Fetterman acknowledged that Democrats want to address the importance of the Obamacare tax credits, but called their current “tactic wrong,” as it will “put 42 million Americans in the kinds of food insecurity.”

“If we are the party that are fighting for working people, now—as far as I’m aware—every single union that’s involved in this is now demanding to us to reopen. That’s the side that I’m in.”

“So, it’s not something I support of, and I don’t want to be involved,” Fetterman added. “We can find a way forward. We need to find a way forward and we really can achieve these kinds of tax credits, and this is something I support, but it’s the wrong tactic. It was wrong when the Republicans did it. It’s wrong now that we seem to be driving it.”

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Several unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees, have clashed against Democrat lawmakers for failing to pass any short-term resolution bill to reopen the government. AFGE President Everett Kelley issued a statement last Monday urging Democrats to reconsider their current position and join Republicans in passing a bill as soon as possible.

“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight. Today I’m making mine: It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship.”

Fetterman has also recently called out the hypocrisy of his own party and distanced himself from colleagues who openly refer to Republican lawmakers as Nazis.

“I am not just representing Democrats. I’m representing 13 million Pennsylvanians, and I refuse to call members of the other team as fascists or Nazis, or those other kinds of thing. Because if you do, then that implies that the people that vote for them must be the same. And that’s absolutely not true,” Fetterman said last Wednesday on Fox News.

“I know and love many of people that voted for the president, and they’re not fascists. They’re not Nazis. They’re not here to destroy our democracy. [They] have different values and different views on what they think is the American way of life. And that’s why I refuse to engage in those things.”