Being John Fetterman

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“This is who I’ve always been. I can’t be anything other than I am,” he says with that broad smile that somehow manages to rarely be captured.

Fetterman’s presence is about more than his physical stature. His outsize, unvarnished view of the country matches his imposing frame, and new Morning Consult polling suggests voters are responding to both.

The survey shows that 51% of voters approve of his performance as senator, while 36% disapprove. His standing is bolstered by Pennsylvania Republicans who respect his candor on broadly supported issues such as border security and backing the release of hostages held in Gaza after the Oct. 7 attacks.

The survey evaluated all 100 U.S. senators. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) posted the highest approval rating, while Fetterman’s standing with Pennsylvania voters improved.

Although he votes with the Democratic Party most of the time, he has drawn anger from the party’s left flank for supporting Israel, acknowledging the strategic case for the United States to acquire Greenland, and backing Trump’s immigration policies. One progressive group, the Pennsylvania Working Families Party, has even placed stories in national outlets aimed at encouraging possible primary challengers in 2028.

His approval among Democratic voters in the state has dipped slightly in the survey, fueling talk on the party’s left wing of a possible primary challenge. What they overlook is that Pennsylvania voters rarely choose candidates from either extreme in statewide general elections, even if they succeeded in replacing him.

Fetterman says he does not base his policy decisions on politics, but on what he believes best reflects the sentiments of voters in the state. He adds that he hears from them constantly in everyday life.

“I shop at Walmart in Greensburg or at Costco in Homestead. I go everywhere across the state, and I am constantly around regular Pennsylvanians,” he said. And the people he encounters regularly engage with him on the issues, telling him they admire his frankness.

Even if they disagree with him.

“People appreciate that, and it demonstrates that what I’m putting out into the world is reaching people,” he said.

In recent weeks, Fetterman has said he fully supports President Donald Trump’s preliminary plans for action in Iran, as well as the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act that Trump signed into law last week. He has also spoken out forcefully against abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arguing that his party must resist what he sees as a tendency to embrace extreme positions.

Fetterman has said the border must be secured, crediting Trump with making progress, while also emphasizing that authorities should deport criminals and stop targeting hardworking migrants living in the United States.

Yesterday, after the second fatal shooting in Minneapolis, he called on Trump to immediately fire Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, posting on X, “Do not make the mistake President Biden made for not firing a grossly incompetent DHS Secretary,” a reference to Biden DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

According to Pew Research, the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. reached an all-time high of 14 million in 2023, the biggest on record, and does not include the 2024 numbers.

“As the ranking member on the subcommittee of border security and as a Democrat, I’ve always demanded we have to have a secure border. And I absolutely give Trump the credit he deserves for securing our border and focusing on deporting criminals. And then when I say, ‘Hey, I think we have to make an adjustment,’ just like I said about Democrats, how could you not fire her,” he said.

He said this kind of frankness in both situations should be part of the national conversation, and he does not understand why it is not.

“I just don’t understand it right now. Leaders in my party are calling ICE or other Republicans the Gestapo or Nazis, and I think that is disgusting,” he said.

“Don’t compare anyone to Nazis. No one,” he said emphatically, adding in the same breath that he questioned where the Left has been on what he described as the Iranian government’s genocide against its own people.

“They (the Left) has been largely silent about the genocide of Iran against their own people, mowing down tens of thousands of young people. Not a peep. Not a peep,” he said.

He shrugs off any political cost that comes with speaking out, saying he is simply taking the side most Pennsylvania voters support on the issues.

“I’ve been committed to being true and just calling balls and strikes,” he said, adding that the next real test is coming up this week on the vote to keep the government open. For him, the second time in two months to stop paying our military is a bridge too far. “I can’t do that,” he said.

Fetterman said it should not be difficult to refocus the debate on securing the border and targeting criminals, rather than turning ICE funding into the defining issue for Democrats.

Senate Democrats are now firmly opposed to funding the agencies that oversee Customs and Border Protection and ICE in this week’s spending package, a stance that could lead to a government shutdown.

The minibus appropriations bill requires 60 votes to pass. Fetterman said that while he disagrees with some ICE strategies and practices, he rejects calls to defund or abolish the agency.

“I will never vote to shut our government down, especially our Defense Department,” Fetterman said.

He also asserted that shutting down the government would not defund ICE. “Let’s just stop rolling up to Home Depot. I don’t think that’s what your average American signed up for. I’ll be the first one to praise Trump and say, ‘Hey, you secured our border. I salute that and rounding up all of the criminal immigrants a thousand percent,’” he said

“I don’t care if that costs me political hits, because that’s the truth, same with the peace in Gaza. I never believed Trump was going to show up with a battleship and take over Greenland. He rattles the sabers without a doubt, but we’re not going to invade Greenland,” Fetterman said of the series of wins Trump has recently scored.

“That is why I don’t have these daily freak outs online, and I’ve found that people appreciate me just being honest,” he said.

The same goes for the relationship he has with fellow U.S. senator Pittsburgh Republican Dave McCormick, whom he counts as a solid colleague and a good friend.

“I think he’s great. And some people are angry with me, and that’s unfortunate, but I’m not going to change, and we’re going to work together, and we’re not going to go after each other or attack people,” he said.

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“I think it’s better for people to get along and to be friends, as opposed to calling them pieces of s*** or their Nazis,” he said of the volatile rhetoric.

“I reject that in the strongest terms.”