Democrats are trying to ‘Biden' Fetterman

The Hill

2 days ago

Democrats are trying to force out Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) like they pushed out former President Joe Biden. Their orchestrated campaign against a senator is a carbon copy of last year's leaks and pressure against a president, only this time it is sooner and less subtle.
For the last few weeks, there's been a steady flow of stories from former Fetterman staffers divulging damaging details about Pennsylvania's senior, and now, only Democratic, senator.
Fetterman is a striking figure personally — tall, bald and raw-boned, he looks like a mixed martial arts fighter in his signature hoodie. He has been no less of a fighter politically. Having battled back from a stroke, he won a close race (just under a 5 percent margin) for his seat in 2022; even in office, he has had health scares.
When Fetterman ran, and even early on in his Senate tenure, Democrats stood with him (in 2023, the Senate Majority Leader even relaxed floor rules for Fetterman). Now, they are clearly moving away with an increasingly loud whispering campaign.
Sound familiar? It should. Democrats did the same to their sitting president less than a year ago.
Following a debate that convinced them Biden couldn't win reelection (though it only showed what nonpartisan Americans had already been seeing), they ratcheted up the pressure to drive him out. Now, in that debacle's aftermath, and attempting to exculpate themselves from blame, they can't books fast enough to reveal the infirmities Biden had, but they worked to hide throughout his term.
History is repeating itself. We witnessed an aggressive cover-up during his 2022 election, and now we are seeing a leaking and whispering campaign against Fetterman, now that he's politically inconvenient. And this is not a case of staffers going off the reservation. No staffer or Senate colleague behaves in this way without a tacit understanding that this is blessed by the party and party retribution will follow.
So, what provoked Democrats' ire at Fetterman? Unlike Biden, who toed the left line into political oblivion (evidenced by his abysmal job approval ratings), Fetterman has been unwilling to go along to get along with Democrats' leftist lunacy, especially when it comes to fudging a moral equivalency between Israel's self-defense and Hamas's terrorism.
The Democrats' ouster effort isn't cutting off their noses to spite their face. If Fetterman seeks reelection, he's virtually certain to be primaried by challengers seeking to exploit the rift between him and the party's left. For Democrats, only bad things come from such internecine fighting.
For one thing, Fetterman could win: after all he has won before, and he is the incumbent. Then Democratic leaders are stuck spending precious money on a candidate they clearly don't want (and who likely displeases some elite lefty donors) to retain a seat they need.
Even if a challenger beats Fetterman in a primary, it costs a lot of Democratic cash and opens intra-party wounds that may cause some to sit out a general election when Democrats will need all supporters on deck — after all, they just lost their other Senate incumbent in the state 2024.
However, if Fetterman resigns, Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, gets to name a replacement. This would give Democrats a new senator now, one more to their ideological liking, and give that candidate a boost with incumbency and on fundraising.
But what if Democrats so alienate Fetterman that he jumps ship and switches parties? Isn't that the Democrats' worst-case scenario? Nope. Their worst nightmare is the primary fight just mentioned.
Yes, a party switch means short-term loss of a Senate seat; however, Democrats are already four seats away from a majority — a fifth makes only a marginal difference. Compared to longer-term primary havoc, and possibly losing the seat to a Republican for a full term (and potentially more) or having to deal with Fetterman for six more years, it's a risk they're willing to take.
And if he switches, he becomes the Republicans' problem — an unreliable vote and primary confusion they'd have to sort out.
The ultimate proof of what Democrats are doing to Fetterman is what they and their media allies didn't do to Biden for four years. If there really were problems with Fetterman, the Democrats and their allies could keep them quiet … if they wanted to. The fact that they aren't says everything.
Emboldened by pushing out a president, now they're aiming for a senator. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, 'there they go again.'
J.T. Young is the author of the recent book, 'Unprecedented Assault: How Big Government Unleashed America's Socialist Left,' from RealClear Publishing and has over three decades of experience working in Congress, the Department of the Treasury, the Office of Management and Budget, and representing a Fortune 20 company.