Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is urging his party to stop hyperventilating over their loss to President-elect Donald Trump earlier this month.
In a new interview with The New York Times, Fetterman said the pearl-clutching and outrage that his party has shown following Trump’s victory has only served to make him stronger and liberals irrelevant.
"We’re not even at Thanksgiving, and Democrats just can’t stop losing our minds every fifteen minutes. We really need to pace ourselves, or, you know, FFS [for f---'s sake], just grab a grip," he told Times reporter Jess Bidgood.
The lawmaker made the point in response to Bidgood asking if Democratic leaders "need to do an analysis of what went wrong," noting that the party should take its time to reassess its strategy rather than flying off the handle.
"Realize that this is how elections go. At least for the next two years, they’re going to have the opportunity to write the narrative and to drive the narrative," he said.
The reporter probed for more specifics, asking Fetterman how the party should respond to the president-elect’s cabinet picks. His advice was to be patient and avoid over-the-top resistance.
"I’m just saying, buckle up and pack a lunch, because it’s going to be four years of this. And if you have a choice to freak out, you know, on the hour, then that’s your right. But I will not," he said, adding, "I’m not that dude, and I’m not that Democrat. I’m going to pick my fights."
Adding a word of warning to his colleagues, he said, "If you freak out on everything, you lose any kind of relevance."
Bidgood followed up by asking if liberals have "done too much freaking out" about Trump.
"It’s symbiotic. One feeds off the other. The Democrats can’t resist a freakout, and that must be the wind under the wings for Trump," Fetterman said.
Fetterman added the "freakout and all the anxiety and all that should have been before Nov. 5."
"Does clutching the pearls so hard — does that change anything?" he said. "Did it work? Did it change the election? Was it productive? And, like, I can’t believe the outrage. That has to be candy for Trump."
Trump won Fetterman's home state of Pennsylvania in the 2024 election. It marked the fifth straight election the winner of the state also won the White House. Fetterman was elected to his first term in 2022 and repeatedly warned of Trump's strength in the state despite Joe Biden winning it in 2020.
