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(NYTs knows he was switched out and doesn’t like his body double)
But he is perhaps the least revealing person to interrogate about his evolution, often claiming that if anyone had been paying close enough attention to him, they would have seen that this is the guy he has always been.
Mr. Fetterman has for years had a complicated relationship with the left, challenging its purity tests while championing some of its causes. During his Senate campaign in 2022, he claimed he had always supported fracking, even though in the past he had said he would “never” support the industry. That year, he also told Jewish Insider that he would always be pro-Israel and “lean in” to strengthening the security of the Jewish state.
Former staff members and supporters suggest there is more at play, both personally and politically. Mr. Fetterman, who swore off social media, and news in general, after his hospitalization for depression, for a time relied on staff to curate a package of clips that kept him up to speed on what he needed to know. But his return to work and sharp break with the left has coincided with a distinct shift to the right in his media diet; he sometimes appears sucked into a vortex dominated by social media, The New York Post and Fox News, where for the first time in his political career, he is receiving approving coverage.
Those who have worked with Mr. Fetterman also suggest that his transformation may be calculated, and that he is carving out what he thinks is a more sustainable and winning lane for himself as a Democrat.Politically, his repudiation of the left has benefited the senator, whose popularity in Pennsylvania polls has increased. A recent Times/Siena poll showed that he has a 48 percent approval rating there, up from 44 percent last October — substantially higher than Mr. Biden, at 41 percent.
“The left should welcome it,” said Rick Wilson, the anti-Trump Republican strategist. “His position in the center left is much more viable in an ongoing political way than the idea of John Fetterman chanting ‘from the river to the sea.’ I don’t think that’s where most Americans’ heads are at. The left should welcome watching something that works.”
He has become a sought-after headliner at state party gatheringsacross the country: in the past few months, he has been invited to speak at Democratic Party events in Des Moines, Iowa; Reno, Nevada; Broward County, Florida; as well as events in Texas, Wyoming and conferences for the machinists, the teamsters and the realtors unions.
But that rise in popularity has also meant trampling on a political brand he cultivated for years. On the campaign trail, he positioned himself as a champion of the underdog and highlighted his association with Senator Bernie Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist from Vermont he supported for president in 2016.Now, he proudly rejects the label “progressive.”
“He ran as a progressive in a very polarized election cycle,” said Nathan Diament, the executive director of public policy for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. “There’s almost an expectation that new and rising members of the progressive wing are going to be in varying degrees unfriendly to Israel. For Fetterman to come in and be so resolute and look at it as a black-and-white issue of morality is both surprising and very much appreciated.”
Mr. Fetterman’s supporters note that he hasfigured out a way to detach himself from the left while still supporting the Democratic agenda. He rejects comparisons to senators like Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona or Joe Manchin of West Virginia,. Despite all of his rhetoric, Mr. Fetterman so far has voted like a reliable Democratic foot soldier.
On domestic policy, he is largely still holding the line on progressive values. Mr. Fetterman wields legislative power foremost as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee’s panel on food and nutrition, which oversees the food stamp program SNAP. In that role, he has drawn a hard line against any cuts to SNAP in the farm bill, which is due to be reauthorized this year.
At the same time, he has teamed up with Republicans, including onetime adversaries. He joined Senator Ted Cruz of Texas on a bill to limit social media in schools and on an amendment to the annual defense policy bill that would prohibit the sale of crude oil from the U.S. petroleum reserve to foreign adversaries.
On the campaign trail in 2022, Mr. Cruz made fun of Mr. Fetterman after his stroke for a shaky performance at a debate, where his auditory processing issues made it difficult for him to speak and he greeted the audience by telling them, “Good night everybody.”“In honor of John Fetterman,” Mr. Cruz said as he took the stage at an event in Tennessee not long after, “I suppose I should start by just saying, ‘Good night!’”
https://archive.is/ndvaE