This is a non-story that is somehow still a story.
The Republicans, led by President Donald Trump, would love for John Fetterman to switch parties.
The Democratic senator says no way, I’m not doing it.
That would seem definitive enough to deflate this highly visible trial balloon.
Except for one thing: It’s hard to see how he wins re-election as a Democrat.
The Pennsylvania senator has already been through the worst experience of his life: a stroke that left him barely able to speak and struggling to process what others were saying.
In an extraordinarily candid memoir, he recounts how he battled depression, was kicked out of the family home and had suicidal thoughts.
Compared to that ordeal, political maneuvering is hardly as earth-shattering – and has left him unafraid to speak his mind. That, in turn, includes plenty of criticism of the Democratic Party.
In an interview on Fox News, Fetterman cited a “communist takeover” in Maine (where Democrats are running far-left Graham Platner for Senate, who has a Nazi tattoo he eventually covered up), support for the Palestinians and attacks on ICE as evidence that the Democrats have descended into “an orgy of socialism.”
The hoodie-wearing lawmaker is staunchly pro-Israel, putting him at odds with a liberal party that is increasingly hostile to the Jewish state.
Trump told Sean Hannity, who repeated the offer to Fetterman: “Your job is to tell him: He’s gonna run as a Republican, he’s gonna have our full support, more money than he ever dreamed of, and he’s gonna win big.”
Fetterman didn’t respond to the offer but told Politico columnist Jonathan Martin that his party colleagues have been “suspicious or kinda standoffish.”
After Trump won a second term, he invited Fetterman to Mar-a-Lago, making him the first Senate Democrat to visit the president-elect. Trump called him “impressive” and “just a common-sense person.” Fetterman later became the only Democrat to vote to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general.
He seems to spend more time these days hanging out with GOP lawmakers, especially two who are social friends along with their spouses.
But Fetterman is quick to note that he has voted with the Democrats 93 percent of the time – which raises the obvious question of how comfortable he’d really be as a Republican.
In an earlier interview on Fox, Fetterman said:
“My voting record actually reflects that I am a Democrat. You know, what’s changed me with many of my other colleagues is that I don’t agree and I use like extreme rhetoric and say, but I support what I think most Americans should agree with these things.
“You know, the Democratic Party, you know, we became an open border party, without a doubt. And now that’s wrong, and I support to make our border more security, and deport all of the criminals right now. So I can’t be a Republican because in many other areas, I disagree on that. So whether if I’m politically homeless or whatever, but I’m staying in my party.”
And, as he enjoys pointing out, he’s the guy who flipped the seat, as lieutenant governor, in the fall campaign against Dr. Oz more than three years ago.
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But his semi-independent status gives him substantial leverage in light of the tight margin in the chamber. And if the Democrats manage to flip three seats in November – which I still think is a long shot – Fetterman could provide the 51st vote.
And if he loses, it would be far from the worst thing that ever happened to him.
