Sen. John Fetterman has dismissed the growing rumors that he intends to pull a switcheroo and join the Republican Party.
“That’s amateur hour shit,” he said to Semafor of the theory. “If they think, ‘oh, it’s going to be like a Manchin or a Sinema play,’ that’s just not true, and that’s not going to happen.”
“It’s not gonna happen. And even if I wanted to do that, that is a rocket sled to Palookaville to try to switch. I would make a pretty bad Republican,” he added.
He wasn’t wrong. While he’s the sanest Democrat seen in ages, he’s still a Democrat at heart.
Fetterman’s a “moderate Democrat” except when it comes to anything that could potentially threaten Democrat power. Which at the end of the day makes him virtually indistinguishable from AOC. https://t.co/VNctRrPfbq
— BowTiedRanger (@BowTiedRanger) November 18, 2024
That said, this week he did stunningly agree with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham after Graham called for the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program.
“I don’t think diplomacy works,” Graham said during a CBS interview. “I am hoping there will be an effort by Israel to decimate the Iran nuclear program, supported by the United States. And if we don’t do that it will be a historical mistake.”
Fetterman responded very positively to Graham’s words:
One Hundred Percent. pic.twitter.com/dYEBkS9DkR
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) January 19, 2025
While the theory that Fetterman might switch has been bandied about for awhile now, it started to really pick up traction on Inauguration Day after New Jersey Assemblyman Jamel Holley essentially endorsed it.
“Just left a conversation and my source indicated to me that a key Democratic senator is expected to change party affiliation to Republican by next week,” he tweeted that afternoon. “Wow!”
Wow indeed.
Just left a conversation and my source indicated to me that a key Democratic senator is expected to change party affiliation to Republican by next week. Wow!
— Jamel Holley (@jamelholley) January 20, 2025
Now, with no other hints to guide them, virtually all social media users predicted Fetterman would be the one to make the switch.
“Gotta be Fetterman,” one social media user tweeted. “With the swing Pennsylvania experienced, it makes sense. Plus he’s such a huge Israel supporter and that don’t fly in the Democrat party. And of course, he went to Mar a Lago.”
He did indeed recently travel to Mar-a-Lago to meet with President Donald Trump, who subsequently praised him.
“It was a totally fascinating meeting,” he told the Washington Examiner. “He’s a fascinating man, and his wife is lovely. They were both up, and I couldn’t be more impressed. He’s a commonsense person. He’s not liberal or conservative. He’s just a commonsense person, which is beautiful.”
“If I was a betting man, I’d throw some money on it being Fetterman,” another social media user tweeted.
See more responses below:
My money is on Fetterman. He will likely lose in 2026 and he is angry with his party and their support of Hamas.
— Dive4bottlecaps (@dive4bottlecaps) January 20, 2025
My guess is the wild man, John Fetterman, he recently commented that he thought Republicans had some good ideas, and since his stroke, he sounds more and more like an R, not a D.
— Jericho (@JerichoXVI) January 21, 2025
If it’s Fetterman, I would like to believe he was inspired by the incredible energy of the inauguration. There was so much positivity and patriotism in the air, he had to have been affected. Dems cannot inspire that kind of energy because they don’t love our country like that.
— Raxeh (@realRaxeh) January 20, 2025
After his stroke and factory reset, Fetterman is now a rational, reasonable critical thinker; so is shouted down, spurned, powerless in the Democrat party.
Fetterman recently said: “I represent all of Pennsylvania, not just Democrats”…
Blasphemy to Democrats.— warren white (@wrwhiteal) January 21, 2025
Who could it be? pic.twitter.com/7us4D33E0l
— Kelly (@SunshineSass2) January 20, 2025
But some Republican social media users pushed back by arguing that, assuming Fetterman did join the GOP, he’d just be another RINO given his left-wing views on abortion and other matters.
Some also warned that a switch by Fetterman could just be a desperate gambit meant to keep him in politics now that he’s alienated so many Democrat voters by supporting the war in Israel and also meeting with President Trump.
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