4 things we learned from Sen. John Fetterman’s springtime media blitz
Also this week: A dustup over a candidate's sexuality in the N.J. Republican party, plus new questions about whether the GOP has beef with Philly Elmo.
Sen. John Fetterman is used to getting a ton of media coverage, but even by his standards, the last few weeks have felt like a lot.
That’s in part because Fetterman seems to have embarked on a media blitz of sorts to talk about the Middle East, his health, his support of President Joe Biden, his push for a commission on mental health, and whatever else reporters want to ask him about.
There was a profile in Philadelphia Magazine. An interview on Fox News. A profile in the Wall Street Journal. An interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. There was even a profile in the New York Times (though that was one he declined to be interviewed for).
» READ MORE: John Fetterman’s fight with the left is no longer just about Israel
Fetterman’s latest push on the interview circuit comes as the Democrat is losing support from former allies on the left and drawing praise from figures on the right who’d previously mocked him.
Here are four things we learned from the parade of interviews and news stories:
Fetterman has continued to lose staff. According to the NYT, his political adviser Rebecca Katz “has recently moved on,” and chief of staff Adam Jentleson resigned last month to be an outside adviser.
He has no plans to switch his party, he told the WSJ, saying, “I just consider myself a Democrat that calls balls and strikes.” As the NYT points out, despite his rhetoric, Fetterman “has voted like a reliable Democratic foot soldier.”
According to the WSJ, Fetterman’s “best friend” in the Senate is Sen. Katie Britt (R., Ala.), a conservative freshman who was widely criticized for her stilted delivery of the State of the Union response earlier this year. Fetterman said he knows what it’s like to be a social media punchline, and he felt for Britt and her young family.
Fetterman said on MSNBC that Trump “has a strong position in Pennsylvania,” but he still thinks Biden will eke it out. “I fundamentally believe that it’s going to be a close race,” he said.
N.J. Republican: Right-wing group’s comments about sexuality were ‘asinine’
It may not be all that surprising that a New Jersey group that advocates for “parental rights” and religious liberty endorsed a Trump-backed Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.
The interesting part came next.
When the group, Team Protect Your Children, announced it’s endorsing Christine Serrano Glassner to fill the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, an administrator of the group’s Facebook page invoked the sexuality of Serrano Glassner’s chief opponent.
“We CANNOT let Curtis Bashaw, a Never Trump Republican who donates to Democrats, win. Curtis is married to a man, and he is proud of it,” the page read.
Bashaw, a developer who is openly gay, is more moderate than Serrano Glassner. He opposed former President Donald Trump’s 2016 run for the White House, and he served in the administration of former Democratic Gov. James E. McGreevey.
On Wednesday, one of the state’s most well-known Republicans waded into it: Jack Ciattarelli — who’s making his second run for governor and narrowly lost last time around to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy — posted on X that Bashaw deserves an apology.
“Asinine comments like this by fringe elements of our party repel independents & moderates in both parties — the very people we need to win over to be successful in November in a state where we are vastly outnumbered,” Ciattarelli wrote. “Curtis deserves an apology. Who he loves has nothing to do with how he’ll govern or his commitment to our party’s core values of lower taxes, smaller government, individual freedom, or law & order.”
Does the GOP have beef with Philly Elmo?
We think Clout’s friend Lauren Vidas said it best when she referred to Philly’s Elmo mascot, who plays in the Positive Movement drum line, as “our cultural equivalent of the bagpipe players who greet dignitaries visiting Scotland.”
Yes, the person who traverses the city in a bootleg Elmo costume is an institution, so Philly Democrats were thrilled when he and his drum line played at Biden’s Girard College rally on Wednesday. Kudos to whoever on the Biden campaign orchestrated the built-for-Philly-Twitter moment.
Not everyone got the joke. National reporters coming to our fair city were quite confused about why Elmo was there, and some even asked Biden campaign staffers about it.
The big red guy also went semi-viral in circles less friendly to the president.
A Republican National Committee account with more than half a million followers on X shared a video from the rally, writing: “Top Biden campaign surrogate Elmo warms up the ‘crowd’ at Biden’s ‘rally’ in Philadelphia.” The conservative site Gateway Pundit called it a “clown show.” And Fox News host Jesse Watters did a segment on the rally and the “origins of Philly Elmo,” showing video of the mascot dancing in front of a fire.
“Fitting,” Watters quipped.
Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.
Staff writer Julia Terruso contributed to this column.