In President Biden’s increasingly lonely midterm campaign cycle, there is another U.S. Senate candidate from his own party who refuses to join him at an official event – John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.
The incumbent lieutenant won the Democratic primary in the Keystone State while in the hospital recovering from a stroke that sidelined Fetterman in the early months of the general election campaign, but now that he’s back for a few events – ones that aren’t going well , as Vespa reported here — still can’t resist showing up with the President of the United States in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
The situation mirrors what occurred when President Biden visited Ohio earlier this summer, with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tim Ryan – currently a member of the U.S. House of Representatives – citing scheduling conflicts as a reason for avoiding meetings with Biden.
Fetterman’s campaign sought to quell the obvious backlash by saying Fetterman would be at a parade elsewhere in Pennsylvania where Biden would also appear, but the two bumping into each other to discuss decriminalizing marijuana during a parade is not comparable to appearing at scene with the president.
Fetterman walks Biden on a tightrope:
“John will not be with Biden at the event in Wilkes-Barre, but he will be marching in the Labor Day parade at (PGH) next week and looks forward to talking with the president there about the need to finally decriminalize marijuana.” — Fetterman’s assistant
— Jonathan Allen (@jonallendc) August 29, 2022
Fetterman’s decision to skip Biden’s visit about 10 weeks before the general election is puzzling for another reason. Biden’s visit to Wilkes-Barre was credited by the White House with remarks on his “Safer America Plan to Further Reduce Gun Crime and Save Lives” – on which Fetterman just released a up-to-date ad that will air on the airwaves starting Tuesday radio.
In the ad, Fetterman attacks his GOP opponent, Mehmet Oz, for his “Gucci loafers,” then highlights his own sleeve tattoos, which include a zip code on one arm and the dates of the murders on the other. “That’s why I ran for office, because of public safety,” Fetterman says in the ad, wearing an oversized hoodie. “I worked hand in hand with the police,” he also says, before stating that “we did everything we could to fund our police.” It is unclear whether Fetterman’s bragging about working hand-in-hand with police includes the time Fetterman he pulled out his shotgun on a black jogger and held him at gunpoint until the police arrived.
In a race where Fetterman allegedly sees an simple path to victory – if the mainstream media and Democrats are to be believed – why buy defensive advertising by refusing to appear with Biden at an event on the same topic?
Aside from Biden’s visit and relying on television ads to get his message across, Fetterman continues to refuse any debates with GOP nominee Mehmet Oz.
In his Tuesday speech, Biden hopes Democrats will portray someone they no longer are: supporters of law and order through policing in the face of rising crime that is sending voters en masse to the Republican camp as they watch their communities, families and businesses fall victim to fearless criminals under a flexible democratic prosecutor’s office.
While Biden hopes this trip will be about flipping the script on “defund the police,” it actually highlights House Democrats’ inability to agree to defund the police, and Democrats, like Fetterman, continued refusal to be around Biden . https://t.co/o9J2mAHVdT
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 30, 2022
