Senator John Fetterman offered a blunt message to his Democratic colleagues on next year’s presidential election.
Fetterman, an ardent supporter of President Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign, criticized Biden’s primary challengers, comparing Democratic attacks on the president as being more damaging than cutting out a check to former President Donald Trump.
“Other Democrats that are now vocalizing and saying these incredibly unhelpful kind of things—why? What’s your goal? Are you trying to diminish the president? Are you trying to strengthen Trump?” Fetterman told CNN on Tuesday. “It’s much easier and much less effort to just write a check for Trump.”
The senator’s comments come as Representative Dean Phillips’ campaign has gotten increasingly critical of Biden. Although launching his White House bid as an effort that would “strengthen” Biden rather than “diminish” him, Phillips has grown his campaign in recent weeks into an aggressive one that’s taken direct aim at Biden’s mental fitness and called the president a threat to democracy. Newsweek reached out to Phillips’ campaign via email for comment.
The shift became noticeable after it was announced Phillips’ name would be left off the Democratic presidential primary ballot in Florida and North Carolina, exclusions that the congressman has blasted as “undemocratic manipulation” and compared to the political struggle in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“If [Biden] wasn’t [a threat to democracy], he would say something about what happened in Florida,” Phillips told reporters in New Hampshire last week. “How can you, the president of the United States, condemn the former president who was clearly a dangerous man, and do what he did in New Hampshire and allow what’s happening in Florida?” Phillips was referring to Biden’s decision not to participate in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary on January 23.
Less than three months ago, Phillips had struck a different tone, saying at a campaign briefing, “I’m here to celebrate the president. I do not have anything but admiration for the president.”
Fetterman, who does not hold back when it comes to calling out his colleagues, called Phillips’ recent comments about the president “laughable,” telling The Washington Post that the Minnesota Democrat’s candidacy is a “dream for Trump.”
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Phillips isn’t the only Democrat Fetterman who has been critical of in the run-up to the 2024 election. Last month, he chided California Governor Gavin Newsom for seemingly running a campaign against Biden.
Newsom has repeatedly denied reports of his White House ambitions and said that he would not run for the presidency even if Biden does not pursue a reelection bid. But the governor has ramped up his national presence, recently appearing in a head-to-head debate with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is running for the Republican nomination, and meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
At a dinner hosted by the Iowa Democratic Party, Fetterman said in his address that there are two Democrats, aside from Biden, “running for president right now.”
“One is a congressman from Minnesota, the other is the governor of California, but only one has the guts to announce it,” Fetterman told the crowd.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.