Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) implied that there isn’t a leader currently directing the Democratic party.
Fetterman appeared on Fox News’s Fox and Friends Tuesday after he voted with Republican senators to fund the government. Seven other Democratic senators broke including Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), broke with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Fox host Lawrence Jones asked who Fetterman believed “is running the show now in the Democratic Party in the Senate and the House.”
“No one really knows. And I think my values are reflected in my vote and things that I support here. And if that might put me at odds with parts of my party, I’m okay with that,” Fetterman said. “I mean, we need to be a big party, a big-tent party.”
Fetterman supported the previous continuing resolution in March, which was also supported by Schumer. On Monday, however, Schumer voted against it because it failed to address what he referred to as the “healthcare crisis.”
“My party has always been opposing shutting our government down. I’m not sure why it is controversial now to devote these things,” Fetterman said. “I refuse to put all these people in the middle of these political kinds of brinkmanship.”
Schumer managed to maintain a Democratic coalition that continued to vote against funding the government for 41 days and over two dozen votes. The sudden support for the continuing resolution, initially drafted under former President Joe Biden’s term, came after Schumer sought to extend premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act.
FETTERMAN ON SHUTDOWN: ‘THIS WAS A FAILURE’
The premium tax credits initially drafted under the ACA were enhanced under the Biden administration amid the coronavirus pandemic. A Congressional Budget Office report said that permanently extending the enhanced credits would cost the government $383 billion.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to Schumer for comment.
