John Fetterman is the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, and the former mayor of Braddock, PA, which is just outside Pittsburgh. He and his wife Gisele and he have long been involved in community work, helping those who are in need, and that ethic characterized their time in Braddock, where they still live.
Fetterman stands out, and always has. He's 6'8", bald, goateed, tatooed, and usually wears Carhart jackets and shirts -- the kind of clothing more often seen on those who work in construction and the like. Go google his wikipedia page. His official portrait shows him in a gray open-collar shirt with pockets on both sides -- he looks more like a skateboarder than a politician.
As mayor of Braddock, Fetterman drew attention for his focus on revitalizing the dying town of Braddock, which had been hollowed out by the death of the steel industry, much like vast parts of that region. Now, Fetterman has become a regular fixture on MSNBC by virtue of his clever and forceful criticisms of President Trump's attempts to overturn the election. Much like Trump, a good bit of Fetterman's persona is playing out on Twitter.
We talked here about the way that the Republican party in Pennsylvania made sure that it would take days to count mail ballots, giving Trump cover to make baseless claims about cheating. Fetterman called that "orchestrated." But he also surprised me by sort of defending Republican leaders in the legislature. Instead, he pointed the finger at the president and at his supporters.
The most telling moment, to me, was Fetterman's comment that we are entering a post-truth era in our politics. Trump is making incredibly serious charges without any facts to back him up. Fetterman is very frank that this is just the beginning of a period where people can say or believe anything, regardless of what the facts are.
That's the most serious problem now as we leave the Trump presidency behind. And in fact, we start our conversation in a back and forth over why it's been reported, falsely, that Fetterman calls himself a Democratic socialist. This is also on his Wikipedia page. And it's an example of why it's important to check these things, and verify them.
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We Have Entered the "Post-Truth" Era, With Pennsylvania's Lt. Gov. John Fetterman & Gisele Fetterman