“Some people think now we have to double down on those things or we must become more progressive or more extreme,” said Fetterman, who has renounced the “progressive” label in recent years, continuing, “That’s absolutely not true. The seven or eight states that are going to determine who’s going to be our next president, you know, we have to win in those states, and I understand what that takes.”
Fetterman’s comments come as the Democratic Party reassess how to talk to voters about crime, immigration and culture wars ahead of the 2026 midterms elections. The first-term senator hasn’t shied away from outspoken criticism of his Democratic colleagues on issues he finds to be reactive, like their response to Trump federalizing Washington, DC’s law enforcement, or potentially explosive, like withholding votes on a government funding bill.
“Clearly, we’ve lost the argument” on the issues that delivered Trump a second term, Fetterman lamented.
“We’ve really lost our connection with American voters in ways,” he said, declaring that Democrats won’t find political success from just being “reactive” to the Republican president.
Though the Democratic presidential ticket made labeling Trump a “threat to democracy” a central campaign theme, Fetterman cautioned against comparing him to an autocrat.
“We have to turn the temperature down. It’s like we can’t compare people to these kinds of figures in history. And this is not an autocrat. This is a product of a democratic election,” he said. “It’s like, I participated in that. It was safe and it was secure. We lost, and the American people put us in the minority. That’s democracy.”
He continued: “I revere democracy. I may not like the outcome, but I have to respect that.”
Pressed on whether he agrees that Trump, who has broadly brandished executive power since taking office a second time, is shattering the norms of democracy, Fetterman responded, “He’s definitely different, but that’s what America voted for.”
