Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman agreed that his party’s brand has grown “toxic” after years of “shaming and scolding” voters and even questioned if they can turn it around.
While appearing on the “Somebody’s Gotta Win” podcast on Thursday, host and journalist Tara Palmeri asked Fetterman about how even insiders within the Democratic Party acknowledged the damage their image has taken since the 2024 election.
Fetterman reiterated his belief that the party did it to itself by constantly attacking and demeaning their opponents.
“I think their primary currency was shaming and scolding and talking down to people and telling them ‘Hey, I know better than you, or you’re dopes, or you’re a bro, or you’re ignorant or, how can you be this dumb? I can’t imagine it. And then, by the way, they’re fascists. How can you vote for that?’” Fetterman said.
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) speaks to reporters before a Senate luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on December 12, 2023 in Washington, DC (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
He continued, “And you know, when you’re in a state like Pennsylvania, I know and I love people that voted for Trump, and they’re not fascist. They don’t support insurrection and those things. And if you go to an extreme, and you become a boutique kind of proposition, then you’re going to lose the argument. And we have done that.”
Fetterman described the 2024 election as a “gut-check kind of vote” where Americans largely focused on who was “going to protect or project [their] personal view of the American way of life,” rather than any specific policy.
With the recent Democratic National Committee (DNC) election, Fetterman admitted he was “not sure” if it was even possible to win back those voters, particularly among men.
Fetterman expressed concerns about whether the Democratic Party learned anything from their election losses. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“I think that’s been seriously eroding for a while. And in some cases, in the conversations I’ve had, a lot of people, they don’t even want to say it publicly, but they just feel like the other side seems like…the men’s the problem,” Fetterman said. “Men are to blame. Or their masculinity is toxic. Or unless you’re able to conform to our very strict kinds of definition of what we think is appropriate, well then, hey, I’m going to find an alternative. And they’ve done that. That’s absolutely true.”
“And once [they’ve] kind of turned their back on that demographic, it’s going to be difficult to rebuild and replace that with those voters, because I think that migration has been an ongoing phenomenon for several years and that has been in front and center in part of the election in ’24,” he concluded.
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Since the election, Fetterman has been very critical of his party for ignoring or dismissing key issues like appealing to men or stopping the border crisis.
Fetterman has previously criticized his party on how they approached key issues. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Well, one area where we kind of lost ourselves was the border,” Fetterman said on “Fox News Sunday” in November. “And I’ve been on this network, you know, months, months ago saying, ‘Hey, you know, it can’t be controversial for our party to have pro-immigration, but we need a secure border.’ And when we ask or demand people to not believe what they see, and see those kinds of numbers, that that’s not a problem. It’s like, well, then you lose about that 100%.”
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