John Fetterman: The Rogue Democrat Who Broke Party Ranks
Episode publishedPodcast: All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sa...All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Transcript preview
Preview only
John Fetterman, thank you for joining us here on the All In podcast for this All In interview. Very excited to have you here today. I know you're in the middle of voting today. Sounds like the Save America Act might be starting its debate on the floor. Is that correct?
I don't know. I think what what I've heard recently that they don't have the votes, but we will find. But I I don't have any special insight. I mean, it's it's gonna be very close. I don't think it if they do hit it, I don't see it more beyond 51, but I I'm not I'm not really sure. It's a shame that they didn't make it more about just ID to vote. They they turned it into other things. So they turned it into kind of a Christmas tree, and they're hanging all these things on it. But now that's that's where we are, but we'll know. And having someone follow that too, I just he's gonna let me know,
Yeah. Well, let's see what happens. I mean, it's a pretty dramatic week ahead. Let me just start. I I wanna zoom out a little bit and talk about how you make policy decisions. And I wanna just start with party. You ran as a progressive in 2016, lost. You beat doctor Oz in '22, and now you have a 72% approval rating from Pennsylvania Republicans and only 22% from Democrats. Are you a Republican or are you a Democrat, senator? And kinda what's the way that you think about your party affiliation?
Well, I actually, I I think the the more realistic the the realistic numbers was, like, earlier in the morning console, and that had me at basically fifty fifty with Dems. And I was I was in the the sixties for with Republicans. Without a doubt without a doubt that that I am more popular with with Republicans, and I I'm mystified by that. I mean, I'm honored to to have support from any Pennsylvanian, but what I will say that, you know, I'm just going to follow what I think is the moral clarity. And now in my very first race back in 2015, over a decade ago, what used to be a progressive is defi
What do you think the democratic party used to stand for? What does it stand for today, and what do you think it should stand for?
I I honestly, I I I don't know. But what I will say, as I would refer to to your listeners is, like, listen to what the people that are running for the senate is Democrats. Watch what they're saying and doing. And that's becoming more and more anti Israel, openly hostile to to Israel. And now that becomes part of the litmus litmus purity test to I'm not gonna take any of their money. I'm gonna denounce that. And I was the only democrat that's absolutely Netanyahu just done the right thing to to break the the that access there with Hezbollah and Hamas and now attacking also Houthis as well. So,
You know, it's interesting. We used to have the ability to agree on some things and disagree on other things. It seems nowadays, whatever the other side is doing or saying, you have to take the opposing view. And in many cases, it seems like that might force folks to kind of contort into these weird positions that don't even make logical sense. Why did we get to this point? What happened that everything had to be polar? There was never the ability for us to there's no longer the ability for us to agree on some things while disagreeing on other things. What caused this change in this country, a
I I don't know. Like, part of my party's become so inflexible. What what I've discovered that, you know, you are not allowed to be a proud, unapologetic standing, with Israel, but it's it's okay. It's not a big deal if you have a Nazi tattoo on your chest. And you have people in now in my party now who
Keep exploring with a free account.
A free account preserves the short preview. Upgrade to Pro for the full transcript and episode chat.