Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) blasted people who use “Hitler” or “fascist” to describe political opponents or rivals on Sunday and said the use of such “extreme rhetoric” leads to “extreme outcomes” such as political violence.
Fetterman made these comments in an X post on Sunday afternoon while reposting a screenshot of an article about a study that showed there was an increase in left-wing terrorism in the United States.
“Unchecked extreme rhetoric, like labels as Hitler or fascist, will foment more extreme outcomes,” Fetterman said.
“Political violence is always wrong — no exceptions,” the senator added. “We must all turn the temperature down.”
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Fetterman’s comments came after a gunman drove his vehicle through the doors of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan. After exiting his vehicle, he fired his rifle at worshippers in the church. The church was also set on fire. Four people were killed in the attack, and eight others were reportedly injured.
Fetterman’s post came amid a surge in left-wing violence throughout the country, which the senator highlighted in the attached screenshot. This includes the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a conservative Republican activist and Turning Point USA founder, multiple assassination attempts of President Donald Trump while he campaigned in 2024, the murder of two staffers at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the killing of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.
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Fetterman’s screenshot of left-wing violence was an article originally posted by Axios, citing a study that found “attacks by far-left extremists outpaced far-right violence” for the first time in 30 years. The senator has been an outspoken critic of inflammatory rhetoric in the weeks since Kirk’s assassination.
“Don’t ever, ever compare anyone to Hitler and those kinds of extreme things,” Fetterman said earlier in September. “Now, look what happened to Charlie Kirk.”
“And if there are groups attacking a Democrat, the last one in Pennsylvania, then that’s part of the problem in our party,” he said on Fox News on Sunday on Sunday Morning Futures. “And if you want a Democrat that’s going to call people Nazis or fascists or all these kinds of things, well, I am not going to be that guy. … I happen to believe the truth, regardless if it’s the Republican or the Democratic voice.”
