Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman defended his voting record and addressed the criticism he’s received from some in his own party for meeting and sometimes voting with President Trump.
“I vote a 91% Democratic line, and if Democrats have a problem with somebody that votes 91% of the same times as you are, more than nine out of 10 times, then maybe our party has a bigger problem,” he said in an interview that aired Wednesday on “CBS Mornings.”
Fetterman voted with Republicans over a dozen times to fund the government and end the government shutdown while most Senate Democrats held out. The effort failed 14 times over the past 42 days. During that time, Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, also backed the House-passed funding bill.
The Senate finally passed a reworked bill Monday with support from seven Democrats, including Fetterman, as well as King. The House then passed it Wednesday night, and Mr. Trump signed it a few hours later.
The deal reached in the Senate would extend government funding until Jan. 31, to give Congress more time to pass full appropriations bills. The bill does not extend health care tax credits for Affordable Care Act insurance, which Democrats had been demanding, but does guarantee a vote on the issue. The credits are set to expire at the end of the year, when over 20 million Americans who purchase their own insurance through the ACA will see their premiums spike.
The agreement also includes three full funding bills that lawmakers have been working on for months. The three bills include funding for military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs; the Department of Agriculture and FDA; and operations for the legislative branch. It would also ensure federal workers who were not paid during the shutdown will receive back pay. The bill will also reverse the layoffs that the Trump administration implemented during the government shutdown and prevent any cuts until the end of January.
Fetterman said his views are reflected in his vote.
He suggested Democrats should be “the big tent party that people need,” and he distanced himself from some of his colleagues’ rhetoric.
“I refuse to call people, like whether it’s President Trump or other people, as they’re Nazis or that they’re fascists, or that we’re trying to destroy our country. … I refuse to use that kind of rhetoric and I know that there’s parts of my base that they want that. And there’s some people, my colleagues, that even monetize that kind of outrage right now.”
Unlike many of his Democratic colleagues, Fetterman voted to confirm some of Mr. Trump’s Cabinet picks, including Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Nearly one year into the president’s term, Fetterman admitted he’s “incredibly disappointed” with Bondi, but added, “voting for someone does not mean that you agree with them on all of those things.”
