The Pennsylvania Democrat taunted House Republicans who are planning to launch an impeachment inquiry, calling it a losing strategy.
Sen. John Fetterman offered a message Wednesday to House Republicans considering impeaching President Joe Biden: “Go ahead, do it. I dare you.”
Speaking to reporters in his Senate office, the Pennsylvania Democrat suggested that the impeachment push by Republicans on the other side of the Capitol was meant to deflect from the mountain of legal problems facing former President Donald Trump.
"Your man has what, three or four indictments now?" Fetterman said. “Trump has a mug shot and he’s been impeached twice.”
"Sometimes you just gotta call their bullshit," he said.
The first-term senator went on to say that a Biden impeachment "would just be like a big circle jerk on the fringe right,” and "would diminish what impeachment really means."
Note: As pointed out by reddig33 in comments, this is an old photo. Here's a couple examples of his newlook.
So my kid had an end of year project on someone famous from the state he was assigned to research and present. He got Pennsylvania. I immediately said, “you’re doing John Fetterman. He’s badass. Here lemme show you why..” and my kid was all about it.
The kids dressed up as their famous person and I got the whole getup. Sweatshirt, athletic shorts, bald cap, stick on goatee, custom made rub on tattoos to match. That was really fun and John Fetterman is bad fucking ass. He should be president.
I love how I started reading this comment in my mind's voice and it turned into the voice of some dude from my youth telling me how awesome Pearl Jam is.
I’m not OP and I’m not American so I don’t know anything about his policies, but I know he suffers from depression and has been very open about it. I believe he checked himself into a psych facility not long after he was elected. I thought his honesty and openness about it as a man with a kinda macho image was refreshing to see and a good example against toxic masculinity.
Fetterman was the mayor of Braddock PA, a place I'm rather familiar with, for a long time. Braddock was/is a forgotten borough of Pittsburgh that's long past its glory days. Fetterman came in and wanted to clean up Braddock. How effective he's been has been up to debate, but the man really was a strong voice for Braddock and showed that he really cared. For every violent death that happened in Braddock while he was mayor, he'd get a tattoo of the date on his arm. He also got arrested for protesting the local hospital (UPMC), to get them to bring an urgent care center to Braddock.
Personally I think he's improved Braddock. He helped bring in a few new businesses, and it's helped liven the place up a bit. But it's still a rough neighborhood that needs a lot of work.
He was mayor of Baddock, a town near Pittsburg that had and probably still has a lot of problems. He has tattoos on his one arm of the dates that people were murdered in the town. I live on the other end of the state so I don't know Braddock well, but I believe he did quite a bit for the community. He's very straightforward and honest about issues in his life, and many people here can relate to him. His wife Gisele is from Brazil and is an activist and involved in a lot of charity and social efforts. Fetterman doesn't just talk the talk, he walks the walk.
Part of his bad ass reputation is his look. He is a big, muscular man with a shaved head and goatee (which he has shaved off). He has visible tattoos (the zip code of the town he was mayor of and the dates of every murder that occurred during his tenure as mayor). He is known for being very open and blunt during some of his speeches and lack of fashion sense (he spoke at a formal press conference in athletic clothing).
He gained visibility on a national level after the 2020 presidential elections. As lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania (Vice President of the state), he argued against anyone who alleged that Donald Trump won the state or that the election was rigged in some way.
After that, he ran for US Senate and won a close election against celebrity talkshow host Dr. Oz. Fetterman ran as a populist candidate, campaigning on a platform of solving the problems facing normal people.
Being a fan of Diogones the cynic I to hate vanity. Nowhere is this more apparent than in congress or the house of representatives.
Quoteth Diogones: "in a rich man's home there's nowhere to spit but his face", and republicans are trells, slaves to their masters and as vein as the emperor's New clothes, while pretending to be "rebellious". A bunch of posers, really.
I think that if the Republicans don’t manage to turn the US into a one-party state, Federman’s got a bright future, and his plain-speaking nature is part of that.
Have they found anything they could actually impeach Biden over, or do they just hope that something comes out of the nowhere once they start the process? This whole impeachment stuff sound to me just like Trumps lawsuits for "stealing my vote" and the whole "I'll hold a press conference where I will present irrefutable evidence" stuff.
Both. They scream “BiDeN cRiMe FaMiLy!” To distract from trumps corrupt ass kids being literally employed in the White House. Like dude said trump has 4 indictments…
However I am also sure they are desperate to find anything they can twist into scandal regardless of substance. They investigated Clinton for 25 years before settling on a blowjob.
Remember Trump blackmailing Zelensky to make up dirt on Biden? Nothing. Remember Hunter’s laptop? Nothing. They will keep fishing because they would prefer that over doing jackshit for the average citizen.
I'm sure they'll eventually find something. The Clinton impeachment investigation didn't set out to find anything about his affairs, it was some land deal that turned out to be on the up and up after all.
The point is, they just want to investigate, bog the White House down with discovery, leak anything embarrassing (I'm sure there's a ton more Hunter stuff to leak), and I'm sure they'll eventually find something that sorta kinda looks like a crime (or obstruction), because if you investigate anyone you'll find something eventually.
It's basically about hurting Biden politically, and painting Biden as a criminal, so the uninformed voter can just say 'they're both the same'.
They just want it as a historical anecdote when they talk about presidents being impeached. They're really, really sore about Trump going through 2 of them
Shame the system is rigged to allow your friends on half the jury
Im from near where he was mayor. When we were trying to get mandatory paid sick time passed in the city of Pittsburgh John came and walked the line with us. He once went on the daily show to outline his plan to get a subway to open in the little hood-ass town he was mayor of, because there was no place in that town where you could get ready to eat food and he was trying to stop tax money leaking out to other towns. Dude has a tattoo for each person who died by violence in his town while he was mayor. He's no bullshit.
At first when I read subway I thought you mean public transport and thought “that’s no small task!” When I realized you meant Subway the sandwich shop I was sad that a town didn’t even have a Subway??? They’re a dime a dozen!
My money is on McCarthy running the inquiry so the far right will be forced to fund the government. Can’t run a government inquiry if the government has shut down. MTG has already taken the bate and has said she’d fund the government in exchange for an inquiry.
Strictly speaking, not really true. "high crimes and misdemeanors" I believe is what the constitution says, which unfortunately boils down to "whatever Congress has the desire and political capital to punish" which historically does mean that Fetterman is right. Republicans would likely pay some amount of political price for voting an impeachment with no real or popular basis.
Correct. They also don't need anything other than political capital to launch an impeachment inquiry and just generally be a nuisance.
This is also literally the only reason Trump survived impeachment. Turns out, impeachment means fuck all in a minority-rule-by-design system in which almost nothing is clearly spelled out, and said system is the only check on what passes muster.
Can the US just institute a yearly recurring "impeachment day" holiday where you impeach the current president? It will make things so much easier to schedule around, and we know that from now on every president from both parties will be threatened by impeachment anyway.
When one party refuses to hold their own guy accountable then it is indeed a frivolous tool. Trump obviously should have been removed...so what do impeachment do?
WASHINGTON — Sen. John Fetterman offered a message Wednesday to House Republicans considering impeaching President Joe Biden: “Go ahead, do it.
Speaking to reporters in his Senate office, the Pennsylvania Democrat suggested that the impeachment push by Republicans on the other side of the Capitol was meant to deflect from the mountain of legal problems facing former President Donald Trump.
Talk of an impeachment inquiry has gained steam in recent weeks, with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., telling Fox Business last month that he was open to pursuing the matter if the administration doesn't turn over documents and information to House committees investigating Biden family business dealings, including Hunter Biden.
Fetterman said impeachment would be a political "loser" for House Republicans, along with the looming threat of a government shutdown if they can't reach a funding deal before the end of the month.
Congress needs to pass a government funding bill by Sept. 30 to avoid a partial shutdown on Oct. 1, the first day of the new fiscal year.
Fetterman, who spoke to reporters using an iPad to dictate the questions asked of him as he recovers from a stroke, was also asked for his perspective about two freezing episodes involving 81-year-old Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The original article contains 404 words, the summary contains 208 words. Saved 49%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Didn't feel like I had to reply to you, but since everyone seems to agree with you, I'd argue this is NOT how a senator should act.
The fact is HIS time is worthwhile. He needs to spend it focusing on actions that will make peoples lives better - it's literally his job.
The entire "possible impeachment" is a red herring and engaging with them on that AT ALL is a waste of time. The fact that so many people here agree with you might be why politics is such a mess. Even you all seem to think that his job is to engage these chucklefucks. It's kinda pathetic.
Then again, if you can get them to swarm and spend their energy on stupid shit that has no place to go, maybe they won't be backing up Trump while he's mired in legal cases.
The fewer of them available to run interference for him, the better.
Democrats in Congress would be right in providing ample distractions for their regressive colleagues right now.
What impeachment means has been diminishing for a fucking hot minute now... like decades...
One need look no farther than two words to understand this. The words your man.
It's become a stupid junior high finger pointing game to these assholes (ALL of them. I'm not referring to either tribe, I mean government at large). Trumps impeachmet would have been far more effective if it wasn't seen as a "your team did a no-no" politics by republicans in general.
I dare you? Seriously? Come on... Please tell me people understand this is garbage leadership in every single seat...
I do agree with the man about calling out bullshit, but I disagree on the "sometimes". Should be every time :)
This is exactly the GOP’s plan though. They want to delegitimize Trump’s impeachments by impeaching Biden for frivolous reasons. That way it seems like it’s just “both sides” bickering when there are real reasons for Trump’s impeachment
Trump isn't being impeached... He's a normal person facing normal charges, and I wasn't talking about anything current involving his dumb ass...
The current "both sides" narrative is that anything moderate is a "both sides" defense of trump. The narrative is join the Democrats or you're a diesel truck owning, trump supporting, racist nazi wannabe... it's wholesale virtue signaling tribalist bullshit... Congrats on falling for it.
I'll be wasting my vote on independents until one or both tribes grow the fuck up.
Just remember the first of those impeachment hearings was about the extortion of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy by threatening to withhold military aid in “a perfect phone call” If they didn’t run cover for the election interference allegations in the 2016 election and offer up dirt on Hunter Biden.
There is no timeline where the republicans would have received it any better.
It only took a couple of months after the invasion happened and they realized the withholding aid in the past looked like it created the atmosphere to facilitate the invasion and suddenly all the people who were praising journalists in body armor in the Middle East were criticizing journalists for wearing body armor in Kyiv, and start backing Russia for “reasons” (I still can’t really get any concrete reason from any of them).
The only reason I’ve been given why it was a “ Partisan attack” was that it was revenge for Bill Clinton being impeached for lying about a blow job under oath, as if that diminishes the levity of the situation in the first place.
I'm not sure Democrats have any chance against the all-encompassing Republican Wall of Stupidity if they don't play the same game, to a certain extent. The fact that politics in the US is polarized like it is depends in a large part on the fact that there is no room for a third option. Not by this "your guy/our guy" kind of attitude which is inevitable.
I've voted for third parties for 30 years with a few exceptions. I might only represent a single digit % of the population in doing so, but that number is growing. Independent voters have grown large enough in number to have had laws written to preserve the binary stupidity, we aren't many, but we're enough to have an impact
I like the guy, but after his well documented stumble upon entering the Senate, I'd think, if he were as smart as I know he is, he'd want to chill the fuck out with the firebombs, at least for a couple years
there's fighting while both your feet are firmly planted, and there's throwing haymakers with your hair on fire, and again, while his aim is true, the punches themselves could be hurting him worse than those he's aiming at. there's a lot to be said for holding your powder, and there are far more that I'd like to see take the mantle of attack dog, at least until the good senator from pennsylvania has had enough time to even out and settle, the man's got six years before re-election, he's not the only democrat, and this kind of shit doesn't impress me after seeing him spend the first six months of his current term in an pastoral institution for being unbalanced
He’s sleepy and a criminal, there’s no contradiction there. Look at all the criminals that sleep in broad daylight on our city streets. Also I never said he was “strong”. A stiff breeze would probably knock him over
What? Look, I really don't like Biden at all, but there is no "bipartisan consensus" or even grounds to impeach him. You can't impeach someone just because you don't like them.