Latest news with #Fetterman
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Fetterman dismisses questions as another top staffer reportedly jumps ship
Another member of Sen. John Fetterman's staff is leaving his office, and the maverick lawmaker doesn't want to talk about it. Fetterman's office has been plagued by a string of departures since he came to Washington in 2023, and his alleged erratic behavior, concerns over his health and decision to skip certain votes have led to a wave of scrutiny in recent weeks. Fetterman Defies 'Punitive' Punishment For Breaking With Democratic Party During Bipartisan Discussion And now, Fetterman, D-Pa., is set to lose another top staffer. Axios first reported that Krysta Sinclair Juris, who has been the lawmaker's chief of staff since April 2024, is set to leave his office. When pressed about the situation in his office, Fetterman didn't want to talk about it. "Well, have you, have you spoken to the significant number of my colleagues that have much higher staff turnover?" Fetterman asked Fox News Digital. Read On The Fox News App Fetterman Addresses Calls To Step Aside, Saying Recent Allegations Are 'Not Accurate' He doubled down when asked again if Axios' reporting was accurate. "I think you should talk to my colleagues that have much higher turnover," he said after ducking into an elevator. Fetterman's office later confirmed to Fox News Digital after the publication of this report that Cabelle St. John, who has served as his scheduling director, senior advisor and deputy chief of staff, would move up to take the job opening. "Cabelle St. John has been a trusted advisor since day 1 in the office," Fetterman said in a statement. "I'm lucky to have her taking over as my Chief of Staff, and I'm confident she'll do a great job. I'm grateful for Krysta's work. She's been an invaluable member of the team for over two years and I wish her all the best." Schumer, Democrats Plot Coordinated Resistance To Trump's 'One Ugly Bill' The latest departure is not the first instance where staffers have left this year. Two aides left last month after a bombshell report from New York Magazine detailed rising concerns among his staff about his health. And in February, his deputy chief of staff and communications director hit the exits, too. Fetterman has been no stranger to controversy since winning his seat two years ago and has made a name for himself by often bucking his party's marching orders and siding with Senate Republicans on thorny policy issues. For example, Fetterman has often broken with Democrats on Israel and immigration, saying his party has lost the argument on both issues. The lawmaker acknowledged his unique brand of bipartisanship during a forum alongside fellow Pennsylvania Sen. David McCormick, a Republican, moderated by Fox News' Shannon Bream on Monday. "That's part of the bipartisanship where, you know, it's getting more and more kind of, punitive to just agree with some of these things in the middle of the party right now," he article source: Fetterman dismisses questions as another top staffer reportedly jumps ship
Fox News
4 hours ago
- General
- Fox News
Fetterman dismisses questions as another top staffer reportedly jumps ship
Another member of Sen. John Fetterman's staff is reportedly leaving his office, and the maverick lawmaker doesn't want to talk about it. Fetterman's office has been plagued by a string of departures since he came to Washington in 2023, and his alleged erratic behavior, concerns over his health and decision to skip certain votes have led to a wave of scrutiny in recent weeks. And now, Fetterman, D-Pa., is set to lose another top staffer. Axios first reported that Krysta Sinclair Juris, who has been the lawmaker's chief of staff since April 2024, is set to leave his office. Fox News Digital reached out to Juris and Fetterman's office for comment. When pressed about the situation in his office, Fetterman didn't want to talk about it. "Well, have you, have you spoken to the significant number of my colleagues that have much higher staff turnover?" Fetterman asked Fox News Digital. He doubled down when asked again if Axios' reporting was accurate. "I think you should talk to my colleagues that have much higher turnover," he said after ducking into an elevator. Politico later reported that Cabelle St. John would take over the chief of staff position. The latest departure is not the first instance where staffers have left this year. Two aides left last month after a bombshell report from New York Magazine detailed rising concerns among his staff about his health. And in February, his deputy chief of staff and communications director hit the exits, too. Fetterman has been no stranger to controversy since winning his seat two years ago and has made a name for himself by often bucking his party's marching orders and siding with Senate Republicans on thorny policy issues. For example, Fetterman has often broken with Democrats on Israel and immigration, saying his party has lost the argument on both issues. The lawmaker acknowledged his unique brand of bipartisanship during a forum alongside fellow Pennsylvania Sen. David McCormick, a Republican, moderated by Fox News' Shannon Bream on Monday. "That's part of the bipartisanship where, you know, it's getting more and more kind of, punitive to just agree with some of these things in the middle of the party right now," he said.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Math is hard. Midterm math is harder. The lessons Mass. needs to learn for 2026
Dave Urban knows a thing or two about campaigns. And one of the things he knows is that winning them is all about the math: You add voters. You never subtract them. And when he looks ahead to the 2026 midterm elections, where Democrats will try to retake the U.S. House of Representatives and narrow the GOP margin in the Senate, he knows one more thing. Namely, the party that knows how to add is the party that knows how to win. 'Elections are all about math, right?' Urban, a veteran Republican consultant and former U.S. Senate staffer, said during an appearance in Boston earlier this week. 'It's one plus one plus one plus one. How do you add people? How do you get people on your team?' Urban, joined by former Democratic U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III, offered his comments in the wake of a televised forum on Monday at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Dorchester. The sit-down, aired by FOX Nation, featured Pennsylvania U.S. Sens. John Fetterman, a Democrat, and Dave McCormick, the Republican. Both offer their separate lessons. Fetterman, who won election to the Senate in 2022 as an icon of the Democrats' progressive base, has faced heavy fire for his outspoken support for Israel among other matters. On Monday, he and McCormick found common ground on several issues. Last November, McCormick won the seat held by long-serving Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, while Trump flipped the Keystone State back to his column after losing it to former President Joe Biden in 2020. Read More: A Pennsylvania Democrat and Republican come to Boston. Bipartisanship breaks out Trump ran and won on the issues that are now causing Fetterman such consternation. Still, the question facing Democrats is whether the suburban Pittsburgh lawmaker's centrism might be a winning message in 2026 and beyond. 'Senator Fetterman is voicing a certain series of perspectives that can help pull together one series of constituencies. Obviously, he's alienating some others,' Kennedy, who served in the House from 2013 until 2021, said. 'That's part of the tension here,' Kennedy continued. 'In today's politics, Democrats should listen hard to what he and others have to say as we try to plot our pathway forward.' According to Urban, one of the things that Trump did successfully in his victorious White House bids was to knit together coalitions of voters he needed, from white working-class voters in 2016 to the 'record' share of Hispanic voters who flocked to his banner in 2024, to take the White House. 'Talk about a big tent? The Republican Party — there's huge, huge growth among African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans," he said. 'Now, whether or not that's durable beyond Donald Trump, is a challenge for the Republican Party.' 'And that's what we need to do — how do we attract people who are, you know, kind of ... the old joke about Republicans before, the wine-swilling, country club-going ... that's not the Republican Party of today. The Republican Party of today looks more like" what the Democratic Party used to be, he said. Urban pointed to the example of Beaver County, a solidly working-class suburb west of Pittsburgh. The county was once dominated by so-called 'Blue Dog' Democrats who were more moderate than the rest of the party. 'Now they're all Republicans,' Urban quipped. But he's backed up by the numbers. Trump carried Beaver County in all three of his White House bids. The Republican took a little more than 58% of the vote in Beaver County in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, and again in 2020, when Biden flipped the state to win the White House. Trump took nearly 60% of the vote in Beaver County in 2024, with former Vice President Kamala Harris at 39.2%, improving on Clinton's 38.2% performance, but lagging Biden, who took 40.5% of the vote in the steel town four years earlier. Urban also pointed to the example of his former boss, the late Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, a longtime Republican who switched to the Democrats ahead of his 2010 reelection bid. The move ended Specter's political career — he lost in the primary that year. But it portended a bigger shift in the political topography of the Philadelphia suburbs that Specter called home. 'All those Arlen Specter Republicans are now Democrats,' Urban reflected. 'So there's been this seismic shift in the body politic. And the challenge for both parties is that everybody's up for grabs right now.' That happened in Massachusetts to a more limited extent last fall. While Harris handily carried the state, Trump improved on his performance from four years earlier, winning towns he had not won before. To learn from these changes, Massachusetts Democrats held a virtual statewide listening tour in the days and weeks following the 2024 election. They got an earful from sometimes-enraged party activists who were looking for a winning way forward. Kennedy, like many other Democrats, called this period before the midterms a badly needed 'time of deep reflection.' And understanding winning math. 'A political party's objective is to try to build together the constituents you need in order to win an election,' he said. 'The Democratic Party needs to put some soul-searching [in] there.' The piece of the Mass. budget that passes all understanding | John L. Micek A 'historic battle': Mass pols protest Medicaid cuts in 'Big Beautiful Bill' | John L. Micek Mass. Rep. Trahan's 'Les Miz' moment on Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' | Bay State Briefing Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Fetterman Hits Back at ‘Weird Smear' After Call to Step Aside Over Mental Health
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman pushed back against criticism as he faces ongoing questions about his mental health and job performance in Washington. The Democratic lawmaker appeared alongside his fellow Pennsylvania Senator David McCormick on Monday and rejected accusations that he is not engaged in his job. 'For me, it's very clear, it's just part of this weird, this weird smear,' Fetterman said. The senator said he's been getting 'incoming' over his stance on Israel, the border, and not voting to shut the government down. He pushed for the conversation to move during his appearance in Boston at 'The Senate Project', which aired on Fox Nation. 'I'm here. I'm doing my job. I'm defending on all those things, and all of those important votes, I've always been there,' Fetterman said. 'And for me, if I miss some of those votes, I mean some of those votes, I've made 90 percent of them, and we all know those votes that I've missed were on Monday. Those are travel days, and I have three young kids,' Fetterman continued. He dismissed counts he had missed as 'throwaway procedural votes,' which were not important. Fetterman's comments came after a scathing op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday in which the paper's editorial board wrote he 'must take his position seriously.' It noted the series of recent reports of erratic behavior, the senator missing and canceling meetings, and not showing up for more votes than nearly every other senator in the past two years. 'If Fetterman can't handle the attention or perform his job, then in the best interest of the country and the nearly 13 million residents of Pennsylvania he represents, he should step aside,' it wrote. The editorial is the latest in an avalanche of Fetterman criticism since a bombshell New York Magazine report a month ago detailed former staffers raising alarms over the senator's mental state. Fettrman blasted it as a hit piece. On Monday, Fetterman claimed Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Patty Murray missed more votes than him. 'Why aren't the left media yelling and demanding them and claiming they're not doing their job?' Fetterman asked. According to tracking by Fetterman missed 174 out of 961 roll call votes, or 18.1 percent of votes from February 2023 to May 2025 and more than 21 percent of the votes in the last Congress. It noted that it is much worse than the median of 2.9 percent of votes senators have missed. Since taking office in 1993, Murray has missed 2.6 percent of votes, and 1.6 percent of votes in the last Congress. Sanders has missed 13.4 percent of votes since 1991, or 9.4 percent of votes in the last Congress.
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Fetterman Loses Another Top Staffer Amid Escalating Health Concerns
Sen. John Fetterman is losing another one of his staff members amid growing, reported concerns over his well-being. The Pennsylvania Democrat's chief of staff, Krysta Sinclair Juris, will be leaving his office soon and will be replaced by Cabelle St. John, who previously worked as his deputy chief of staff, senior adviser, and scheduling director. Axios was the first to report the news on Tuesday. 'Cabelle St. John has been a trusted advisor since day 1 in the office. I'm lucky to have her taking over as my Chief of Staff and I'm confident she'll do a great job,' Fetterman told Axios in a statement. 'I'm grateful for Krysta's work. She's been an invaluable member of the team for over two years and I wish her all the best.' Over the past year and a half, a pool of Fetterman's staff, including top communication aides and his legislative director, have left his office with two aides even departing as recently as May. Fetterman's former chief of staff Adam Jentleson, whom Juris succeeded, also left his post and notably expressed his concern over the senator's health in an explosive report for New York Magazine last month, where he argued that Fetterman was 'struggling in a way that shouldn't be hidden from the public.' The senator subsequently brushed off New York Magazine's report as a 'hit piece,' and told NBC News in a statement: 'It's a one-source story, with a couple of anonymous sources, hit piece from a very left publication. There's really nothing more to say about that.' He again scrutinized the growing, reported concerns over his health as a 'weird smear' campaign against him during a debate in Boston on Monday. 'For me, it's very clear. It's just part of this weird, this weird smear,' the senator said. 'I'm here. I'm doing that job. I'm defending all those things, and all of those important votes, I've always been there.' According to tracking by Fetterman missed 174 out of 961 roll call votes, or 18.1 percent of votes from February 2023 to May 2025, and more than 21 percent of the votes in the last Congress. The median of votes senators have missed is 2.9 percent.
