Fetterman Accepts Trump’s Invitation to Meet

The New York Times ^ | Jan. 9, 2025, 5:45 p.m. ET | Annie Karni

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The Pennsylvania Democrat is the first senator in his party to announce a meeting with President-elect Donald J. Trump, a sign of the political times as the Republican trifecta is about to begin.

Senator John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat who used to court progressives and now routinely takes aim at the left, said Thursday that he had accepted an invitation to meet with President-elect Donald J. Trump ahead of his swearing-in, becoming the first Democratic senator to do so.

“President Trump invited me to meet, and I accepted,” Mr. Fetterman said in a statement. “I’m the senator for all Pennsylvanians — not just Democrats in Pennsylvania.”

He added: “I’ve been clear that no one is my gatekeeper. I will meet with and have a conversation with anyone if it helps me deliver for Pennsylvania and the nation.”

The meeting, which is expected to take place at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s estate in Florida, and was reported earlier by CBS News, offers Mr. Trump a chance to press Mr. Fetterman to support some of his nominees who will be up for Senate confirmation in the coming days. And it offers Mr. Fetterman an open channel of communication with a president-elect who has proved to be malleable on policies, and highly attentive to whomever he last spoke with.

Mr. Fetterman has undergone a change in political persona since arriving in Washington. He appears to enjoy the spasms of anger he routinely produces from the left, as well as the strange new respect he commands from right-wing media outlets that once dismissed him as a vegetable and lobbed sexist attacks at his wife.

His impending visit, which has yet to be scheduled, is likely to generate more outrage from the left. But that’s just the way Mr. Fetterman likes it. On Thursday, he joked to reporters that...

[RS_Rider]

“I’m wondering what his constituency is thinking of him?”

He is supposed to be my senator.
Doesn’t look like or sound like the ex mayor of Braddock, PA.
Either the stroke or the car crash made him 10 years younger.

[ViLaLuz]

I’m wondering what his constituency is thinking of him?
..................................

We’re thinking he sees his state turning red and he wants to stay in office. Don’t be fooled.

[pburiak]

Yep. Most people are sick of politicians who do cringy fake accents in front of different audiences, speak in weasel words and parse every sentence, or come across as grifters/used car salesmen.

Don’t agree with 95% of what he says, but that’s why Bernie Sanders had such a wave of popularity a few years ago.

[OneVike]

I am always amazed of the transformation of men who stop doing drugs. So many continue on a track of recovery as they slowly realize 99% of their wacked out beliefs had everything to do with the state of their minds while on drugs. Many have become staunch conservatives. not over night, but if it does happen, it is a process that can take about 10 years.

Fetterman could be a great example of which time will one day reveal.

[Drew68]

LOL!

REPORTER: What are you hoping to get out of your visit to Mar-a-Lago with Donald Trump?

SENATOR JOHN FETTERMAN: "I demand that I need to be made Pope of Greenland."

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