Under the shadow of “Trump signs everywhere,” as described by US Senator John Fetterman, the freshmen Democrat finds himself wringing his hands in anxiety over the unyielding strength of Donald Trump in his home state of Pennsylvania.
Despite successfully flipping a decades-old GOP stronghold during the recent November midterms, Fetterman, 53, has spent much of his early term away from Congress due to multiple hospitalizations. His health was previously compromised during the preceding year’s primaries when he suffered a serious stroke while on the campaign trail.
During an interview with the New York Times, where the conversation naturally navigated towards the Biden Justice Department’s and a far-left Manhattan DA’s indictments against the former president, Fetterman could not conceal his worry about Trump’s unwavering popularity.
Seemingly dismissive of the charges leveled against Trump, Fetterman queried, “I’m a senator, and I’m not sure how many times [Trump]’s been indicted. He’s been impeached twice. Has that changed anything?”. His words echoed a reality that many Democrats have yet to face: that Trump’s influence continues to hold strong, especially evident in Pennsylvania where “Trump signs are everywhere.”
Despite his inclinations to the left, Fetterman felt compelled to acknowledge Trump’s power, “You have to respect his strength in all of that,” he reluctantly admitted, according to Breitbart News.
Although he tried to comfort himself by suggesting that Trump might hit a hard ceiling of support in Pennsylvania, he conceded that the former president remained a “competitive” force in the crucial battleground state.
Reviewing his first six months in the US Senate, Fetterman criticized the chamber’s lack of productivity and its concentration on divisive culture wars, expressing his exasperation over the “fixation on a lot of dumb s***.”
In an attempt to quell public worries about 80-year-old President Joe Biden’s mental fitness, Fetterman described Biden as “aware” and “sharp.” He added, “I’ve spent enough time around him. He’s sharp, he’s aware, he is absolutely up to the task.”
This naive faith comes in the face of recent poll results from Quinnipiac University, indicating that Trump currently leads Biden in Pennsylvania by a narrow 1-point margin, 47% to 46%, in a potential head-to-head rematch. The data paints a picture Fetterman and his ilk are loath to acknowledge: Trump’s influence in Pennsylvania, and perhaps across the nation, is far from waning.
