CHRIS CRUCIAL: Is John Fetterman a sellout? ⚠️

PLUS: JD Vance resigns (from the Senate)😉

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1. Fetterman to Mar-a-Lago 🏖️

(Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

During his 2022 Senate campaign — and in the immediate aftermath of his victory — John Fetterman was touted as the next great liberal populist in the Democratic party. He was Bernie Sanders in the body of a 6’8” bald guy who wore hoodies and shorts to every event.

As the New York Times wrote of Fetterman in 2022:

Mr. Fetterman also made a name for himself in national progressive circles, receiving the endorsement of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in 2018 after he backed Mr. Sanders’s 2016 presidential primary bid. And he gained fresh prominence with a broader range of voters as a cable-television fixture when Pennsylvania’s 2020 votes were being counted.

Which brings me to today — when Fetterman confirmed that he is set to meet with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, making him the first Democratic Senator to make the pilgrimage.

“I've been very clear that I have ongoing conversations with people that are going to have an impact on Pennsylvania and for the nation,” Fetterman told reporters. “And I am a senator for Pennsylvania, not just for Democrats. I am a senator for everyone in Pennsylvania.”

The news of the planned meeting comes in the wake of Fetterman making waves in Democratic circles by his acknowledgement that he may well vote for some of Trump’s Cabinet picks.

Fetterman also drew national attention when he became the first prominent Democratic elected official to join Trump’s social media company Truth Social.

All of, well, that has occasioned whispers — and, of late, something a little louder: That Fetterman is not the man liberals expected him to be. That he has somehow sold out and is sane-washing Trump.

I think this is bullshit. But the reaction to Fetterman by Democrats has usefully highlighted the “two roads diverged in a yellow wood” choice that now confronts the party.