John Fetterman's Office Has Been Using a Dirty Trick to Cover for the Struggling Senator
It’s always good to have someone who can cover for you at work — particularly if you can’t actually do your job all that well.
Such is the case with Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman. The newly elected Democrat has assured his constituents that, despite having a stroke just before the primary last year, he’d be perfectly capable of performing his elected duties. A long spell in the hospital for treatment of depression seemed to cast doubt upon this, as has his cognitive difficulties since then.
Not that you’d know it by looking at transcripts of his remarks, however. According to Fox News, many of Fetterman’s remarks have been doctored by the senator’s office to make him look more coherent than he actually is.
“The issue exploded on Wednesday when Jeff Stein, a Washington Post economics reporter, admitted to amplifying a misquote Fetterman’s office provided to him, which had significantly altered Fetterman’s actual statements,” Fox News reported.
“Stein received backlash for tweeting that Fetterman had asked Silicon Valley Bank ex-CEO Greg Becker, ‘Shouldn’t you have a working requirement after we bail out your bank? Republicans seem to be more preoccupied with SNAP requirements for hungry people than protecting taxpayers that have to bail out these banks.'”
“That was my fault,” Stein wrote. “Though it captured his meaning, I deleted the tweet once some of the words in the quote were inaccurate.”
Yesterday I tweeted this quote, provided to me by the Senator’s office, without checking it against the video. That was my fault. Though it captured his meaning, I deleted the tweet since some of the words in the quote were inaccurate pic.twitter.com/jkDYYr2EU2
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) May 17, 2023
Fetterman’s exact remarks were, um, not that:
🔥🔥🔥🔥 Senator John Fetterman asks Silicon Valley if they should have work requirements:
“Republicans want a work requirement for SNAP, for hungry families…Shouldn’t you have a working requirement after we bail out your bank?”
🔥Thank you, Senator! 🔥pic.twitter.com/NejbucJtcR
— Peter Morley (@morethanmySLE) May 16, 2023
“The Republicans want to give a work requirement for SNAP,” Fetterman said in reality.
“You know, for a uh, uh, uh, a hungry family has to have these, this kind of penalties, or these some kinds of word — working uh, require — Shouldn’t you have a working requirement, after we sail your bank, billions of your bank? Because you seem we were preoccupied, uh when, then SNAP requirements for works, for hungry people, but not about protecting the tax, the tax papers, you know, that will bail them out of whatever does about a bank to crash it.”
Fox News noted that “[w]hile it is common for reporters to leave out filler words like ‘um’ and ‘you know’ when transcribing remarks, the extreme changes to Fetterman’s actual words in the quote Stein tweeted left onlookers stunned.”
Moreover, further video of Fetterman from the Silicon Valley Bank hearing did not evince a man who was in tip-top form aside from this:
John Fetterman participates in a Senate Banking Committee hearing with the former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank. pic.twitter.com/uKILMfuilN
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 16, 2023
Nor, in fact, was this a one-time event from Fetterman’s office, as Fox News noted.
This, for instance, was his office’s transcription of remarks during an April 26 hearing: “I’m really excited about Whole-Home Repairs. Here in Pennsylvania, one of my friends, Nikil Saval in the Senate, shepherded it. And he got linked up with the Republicans and they actually created one of the first kinds of a program like this in the nation.
“I come from a community here, in Braddock, Pennsylvania, where your home can go bad really quickly. And I’m really excited that we can take something like that, which is happening in Pennsylvania, and take it federal.”
These were his actual remarks: “I’m really excited by it, because here in Pennsylvania one of my friends really [inaudible] it, Nikil Saval, he was one of the literally — quite literally — as hard left as a politician I’m aware of — you know — certainly in the Senate,” Fetterman says. “Um, he really helped shepherd that. And he got linked up with the Republicans, and he actually created the first kind of a program like this in the nation, you know. And one of my colleague — Mr. Vance — talked about well if there’s a leak in the ceiling, what if you don’t have the money to fix that? What can happen to that, kinda things?
“I come from a community down in Braddock, Pennsylvania, where there’s a lot of — your home can go bad quickly if you were having those kinds — so I’m a big — you know — I’m incredibly, I think I’m excited that could take from Pennsylvania and go federal.”
Meanwhile, this was his offices transcription of his remarks about marijuana legalization at a May 11 hearing: “We need to make it legal,” the transcription on Fetterman’s website read. “I just believe it’s a freedom issue. I’ve given hundreds of pardons to people who have had their lives ruined by a B.S. charge.”
Actual quote: nothing close.
“I don’t know anyone that walks in and is, ‘oh, my god I ended up with grain alcohol instead of this — you know — this bottle of red wine,'” Fetterman said.
“People can understand that as well too. And it seems like it. And I don’t use marijuana. It can be made legal tomorrow in Pennsylvania, and I’m not going to. Just like I’m not going to use tobacco. And I’m just saying [inaudible] I support the Safe Act. But if we just made it legal, we don’t have the special Safe Beer Act or anything, we just need to make it legal in that. What I’m saying to you — and I’m going to save you the last minute here — is that I just believe it’s freedom. I believe it’s a freedom issue for people. And I believe it’s making the legality, and I’ve been giving hundreds of hundreds of people pardons for having their lives ruined for having a B.S. — excuse me — a B.S. charge.”
The Stein remarks were the third incident that Fox News could find that involved Fetterman’s remarks being doctored by his office.
Why does it matter? Because this is the man Democrats want to pass off as being totally well:
John Fetterman says we have to ensure “everyone has clean, safe, [awkward pause] clean drinking werk” pic.twitter.com/pItH8QgiZt
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 3, 2023
Fetterman opens the debate:
“Hi. Good night everybody.” pic.twitter.com/mg0X3Iwf5D
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 26, 2022
Fetterman is emblematic of a serious problem in the Democratic Party that literally goes all the way to the top, in the Oval Office: Whether its President Joe Biden or congresspeople like Sens. Fetterman and Dianne Feinstein, the left side of the aisle is ready and more than willing to enable those who are unfit for office to continue in their roles. Fetterman’s people doctoring his transcripts is just the tip of the iceberg — but it’s emblematic of a party willing to cover for whoever helps them hold onto power in Washington, D.C.
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