Fetterman stops by for a chat with Hannity.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) drew a sharp line with his own party Wednesday night, telling Hannity he’s willing to “pay a price” to help reopen the government — even if it means breaking ranks with Democrats.
“I am always going to vote country over my party and if I pay a price within my base, that’s something I am willing to do,” Fetterman said.
“I’m not afraid to tell my truth and if I’m going to pay a penalty, I’m not afraid of that,” Fetterman told Hannity. “It’s wrong to shut our government down.”
Now in the fourth week of the shutdown, Fetterman has slammed his colleagues for letting politics stall funding for key priorities — the military and Capitol Police among them. He noted he’s one of only two Democrats voting to keep the government open.
In a post to X earlier Wednesday, he called the 22-day-long shutdown a “failure.”
The looming threat of cuts to critical programs, especially the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), has become personal for the Pennsylvania senator.
“I refuse to vote to suspend SNAP for millions of Pennsylvanians in my state and across the entire nation,” he said. “That’s going to be suspended because our government is shut down. I can’t ever vote for that kind of mass food insecurity.”
Fetterman also took aim at his party’s rhetoric, rebuking Democrats who’ve smeared President Donald Trump and his supporters.
“Extreme kinds of rhetoric make it easier for those extreme kinds of actions,” he said. “I refuse to be a part of it and comparing people to Hitler and those things. If that’s what’s required to win, then I refuse to.”
He warned that inflammatory language is dividing the nation.
“We’ve lost the plot,” Fetterman said. “I refuse to call my fellow citizens fascists or Nazis or those things. If somebody wants to primary me or the party wants to vote me out, I’m going to go down being honest and telling you that this is wrong.”
Fetterman closed with a call for basic decency — a rare note of candor in Washington’s echo chamber.
“It’s just basic humanity and we’re forgetting that we all need each other,” he said.
Watch the clip above.
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