The topic of Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman’s attire was taken up by the hosts of ABC’s The View on Tuesday, and the debate found co-host Sunny Hostin saying the Democrat’s look “demeans the office and the actual decorum in the Senate.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, recently changed the chamber’s informal dress code for its members, although exact details of what members can and cannot wear has not been publicly announced.
A number of Republicans have blamed Fetterman for the change since he’s been known to sport hooded sweatshirts and basketball shorts, even though he’s frequently worn a suit and tie on Capitol Hill.
After co-host Whoopi Goldberg opened up the segment, Alyssa Farah Griffin weighed in on the discussion surrounding Fetterman’s clothing choices by saying it’s not uncommon for even visitors to the Senate to dress up.
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“These are chambers that Abraham Lincoln walked in, John McCain, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson. There’s a hallowed sort of ground to it, even if at times our current representatives tend to deface it a bit,” Griffin said.
She continued: “There’s an earnestness to John Fetterman that I really like, but I sort of think dress for the job that you want. And you sign up for a job that has historically had this dress code.”
Newsweek reached out to Fetterman via email for comment.
Hostin then agreed with Griffin after joking about being surprised to find the conservative Griffin “make more and more sense” to her.
“It just seems to me that even though there is no law, it is just a practice [to dress formally], and I think that it demeans the office and the actual decorum in the Senate,” Hostin said.
She then criticized Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema for wearing a pink wig on Capitol Hill, as well as Texas Senator Ted Cruz for wearing exercise clothes and Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for a face mask that was emblazoned with a political message.
However, Goldberg—who was wearing a T-shirt and an unbuttoned long-sleeve shirt during the show—defended Fetterman.
“Listen, here’s my attitude: I don’t care what you wear as long as you get the job done. I don’t care,” Goldberg said. “I dress in what I wake up in.”
She referred to Fetterman as a “wonderful cat” who “seems to love what he’s doing.
“I want to see the respect for us as a nation, and that has nothing to do with their clothes,” Goldberg said.