Critics accuse John Fetterman of pandering to MAGA

Progressives have taken aim at Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman on social media after he joined the president-elect’s Truth Social website, praised Israeli-supporting Republican Elise Stefanik, and called for Donald Trump to be pardoned for his hush money conviction.

One critic responded by accusing the Democrat of a “unconsciously irresponsible betrayal,” while conservative Jesse Kelly joked that he needed to remember himself not to “fall in love with John Fetterman.”

In November 2022, Fetterman defeated Trump supporter Mehmet Oz to win the Senate seat representing Pennsylvania. In the 2022 midterm elections, he was the only Senate candidate to flip a seat, strengthening the Democrats’ tenuous control on the upper house.

In his first post on Trump’s owned social media site, Truth Social, earlier this week, Fetterman became the first Democratic senator to demand for the incoming president to be pardoned for his hush money case.

The senator wrote: “Pardons are acceptable, and the Trump hush money and Hunter Biden instances were both bull****. Using the court as a weapon for obvious political ends erodes public trust in our institutions and fuels further conflict.

Prosecutors claimed that Trump falsified corporate paperwork to conceal the payment of hush money to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels before to the 2016 presidential election, and he was found guilty on 34 criminal charges in May 2024. In a court filing that was not sealed on Tuesday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said that Trump should either be given a non-custodial term or have his sentencing postponed until after he leaves office, since he denies any wrongdoing.

President Joe Biden said on December 1 that he was pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, who had been awaiting punishment after his conviction on charges of tax fraud and gun ownership.

By meeting with Stefanik, a House Republican and ardent supporter of Israel who Trump selected as the next U.S. ambassador to the UN, Fetterman also provoked a progressive response on Wednesday.

Regarding their “shared commitment to standing with Israel and combatting antisemitism,” Stefanik congratulated Fetterman for “a very productive meeting” in an X post. The post included a photo of the two of them grinning and giving each other the thumbs up.

Fetterman posted this and added: “It was nice to talk to Elise Stefanik, but it’s always a hard YES.”

“I support defunding UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) for its documented Hamas infiltration and fully look forward to her holding the UN accountable for its endemic antisemitism and blatant anti-Israel views.”

Andrew Wortman, who has 239,000 followers on X and publishes the leftist ‘America Rises’ weekly, published a Trump Truth Social post pointing out that Fetterman had demanded his pardon in the hush money case.

“He’s already promoting Fetterman’s pardon recommendation,” he said, referring to the next president. John Fetterman, you have betrayed me in a way that is unconscionably reckless and hazardous. Senator, you are dead to us.

Fetterman’s tweet describing his encounter with Stefanik was reposted by the progressive Rubicon X account, which has 61,000 X followers. The account said that they were “extremely disappointed” with Fetterman, saying: “We stood by him when they were about to fire him after his stroke. He is now pleased to advocate for Trump’s pardon. John, what happened to him? The last time I backed a senator who was wearing nice clothes. Elise’s biggest fan is the icing on the cake.

A copy of Fetterman’s Stefanik post was also posted by Candidly Tiff, a Democrat who uses X and has more than 47,000 followers. “It disgusts me to see Democrats suck up to these people who wouldn’t do the same for them,” they said. Fetterman will go even closer to the middle and become Pennsylvania’s Joe Manchin. Yes, that is the new moniker I’m giving them: opportunist democrat.

However, other conservative pundits, like Jesse Kelly, presenter of the Jesse Kelly Show and with over 790,000 X followers, praised Fetterman for his recent acts.

“Look in the mirror and repeat after me: ‘I am not a mark,'” Kelly wrote. John Fetterman sometimes says things that I enjoy, but I’m not a mark, so I won’t fall in love with him. He’s attempting to hold onto office in a reddish swing state, and I get it. He is not on my side.

Trump-supporting social media consultant Chuck Callesto wrote: “WILL FETTERMAN BE THE NEXT SENATOR TO SWITCH PARTIES?” He has 886,000 followers.

However, 190,000-follower X account Johnny Maga referred to Fetterman as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” noting out that the Democrat made no indication that he was against Trump’s hush money trial over the course of the legal proceedings. The senator said that he would “only be concerned” about Biden’s age “if he was unable to stay awake during a criminal trial for bribing a former porn star while his wife was pregnant,” according to a June Fetterman post that he retweeted.

Trump’s attorneys vehemently refuted the allegations that he slept off during his hush money trial.

After publicly endorsing Israeli military action in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault, Fetterman infuriated many on the left by saying that some pro-Palestinian demonstrators were antisemitic and exhibiting images of captives abducted by the organization.