Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) recently discussed his notable shift from being a staunch progressive to adopting more moderate, center-left views within the Democratic Party. This transformation, he explained, has been influenced significantly by his near-death experience from a stroke.
Fetterman made these remarks during an appearance on Bill Maher’s HBO show “Real Time” on Friday. Maher observed Fetterman’s newfound candidness and likened it to politicians who speak more freely once they are out of office.
“You speak like what politicians who I get on this show who aren’t in politics anymore, the ones who are out of office when they can be honest, and that’s the way you speak now and it’s a beautiful thing,” Maher commented. He noted that Fetterman seemed to articulate the sentiments of many Democrats who might be reluctant to voice them publicly.
John Fetterman describes how October 7th was the moment he abandoned the label ‘progressive’:
Bill Maher: “You said ‘I’m not a progressive, I’m a democrat.’ What does that mean?”
JF: “I didn’t leave the label, it left me. After it happened on October 7th I really knew that… pic.twitter.com/iHx5GkJK2T— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) June 8, 2024
When asked if his stroke played a role in this political shift, Fetterman affirmed, “Absolutely. There’s a line from the first ‘Batman,’ Joker’s like ‘I’ve been dead once already. It’s very liberating.’ It’s freeing in a way. And I just think after beating all of that, I just really [want to] be able to say the things that I have to really believe in and not be afraid of if there’s any kind of blowback.”
Fetterman elaborated that it was not he who left the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, but rather that the progressive movement left him, especially in the wake of recent events.
“After what happened on October 7, I really knew that whole progressive stack would be blasted apart and there would not be any kind of way how the Democrats are going to be able to reply to that kind of response,” he said. “And I really decided early on that I believe that was gonna be the right side with Israel throughout all of that. … Democrats would continue to peel away and kind of walk away from standing with Israel on that.”
Fetterman also did not shy away from criticizing some of the more radical elements within the progressive movement. He humorously noted, “And even in Philadelphia, the Queers for Palestine blocked the Pride Parade in Philadelphia, and I never saw that on the Bingo card.”
