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Jasmine Crockett did not mince her words when asked about John Fetterman’s ongoing criticism of his fellow Democratic lawmakers on Sunday.
Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, has been critical of the more left-leaning members of his party, condemning their push for a government shutdown. He also joined in with the chorus of people who mocked the “Choose Your Fighter” TikTok video, in which some members of the House Democratic caucus participated in a social media campaign that highlighted their backgrounds.
Jake Tapper questioned Crockett over Fetterman’s criticism, leading her to unload of the Senator and his trademark casual attire.
“He’s not the one to talk about anything,” the Texas congresswoman said.
After quipping about how she and some other were asked to jump in the videos, Crockett explained: “Just know, we were not on the House floor jumping around at all, whereas Senator Fetterman is consistently walking around the Senate chamber, and he is walking around in such a way that they literally had to change the rules in the Senate so that he could walk around that way.”
The Senate changed its rules in 2023 to allow members to wear what they want on the Senate floor.
She added: “I don’t show up in hoodies when I’m going on the floor.”
Fetterman’s heel turn has not been without consequence, and an ongoing staff exodus from his congressional office has been linked in media reports to his outspoken hard-right position on Israel and frequent breaks with the majority of the Democratic caucus. The senator in the past referred to himself as a progressive but now eschews the label, leading many former Pennsylvania-based campaign volunteers to publicly lament his evolution.
One recent departure from the senator’s office told the progressive news outlet The Intercept: “This is a guy who came in talking about being a champion for labor and he’s gone pretty quiet on it. This is a guy who, since Trump won, is for lack of better word basically a useful idiot for Republicans. He’s supporting stuff and it gives them cover to say, ‘Look it’s bipartisan, we got Fetterman.’”
Most recently, his departure from the positions supported by his party’s base led him to be one of the most outspoken voices against a Democratic filibuster of a Republican-led effort to meet a federal funding deadline with a bill that cut nondefense spending. Backed by Schumer and eight other Democrats in the upper chamber, Fetterman on Friday voted for cloture to advance the Republican bill to debate, bypassing the filibuster threshold and ending the prospect (for dissenting Democrats) of pressuring Republicans to pass a clean short-term funding bill.
