Democrat Sen. John Fetterman has reportedly been pondering a vice-presidential run, much to the horror of his own party.
A New York magazine report filed Thursday revealed that last summer, the senator “called a rare meeting with senior staff to ruminate about his political future.” During the meeting, he broached the possibility of running for vice-president. The idea stunned his staffers.
“Almost all of us had our jaws on the floor, like, ‘Are you out of your f*cking mind? You don’t do your job, you can’t raise any money, and your entire party hates you,’” a meeting attendee told New York magazine.
The reaction was based on Fetterman siding with his Republican counterparts on a number of issues, including Israel, immigration, border security, shutdowns, and the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s nominees.
John Fetterman supported the Army’s Military parade yesterday.
He sides with the Republicans once again.
pic.twitter.com/HFtDMfeE1B
— Girl patriot
(@Girlpatriot1974) June 15, 2025
The Israel factor is especially important. It turns out that Fetterman has an unofficial, unpaid adviser, David “Dovi” Safier, who’s a Jewish history writer, Orthodox fundraiser, and total Zionist.
“A few years ago, he ‘just kind of appeared’ in the senator’s orbit, one former Fetterman staffer remembers,” NY magazine notes. “And then, suddenly, he seemed to be everywhere.”
He was reportedly always in Fetterman’s office, he was with the senator when he traveled to Israel in 2025, and he was even with him when the senator appeared on comedian Bill Maher’s HBO show.
“The two are constantly texting and talking, according to multiple former Fetterman staffers, and Safier has unofficially operated as a top campaign fundraiser and senior adviser,” according to NY magazine.
The problem is that the Democratic Party generally despises Israel and the Jewish people, whom they have falsely accused of committing a genocide against the Palestinian people.
Fetterman has never bought into this lie:
The truth in Gaza.
Hamas steals aid then sells it to their own people, yet Israel faces blood libel with committing “genocide” or “starving” Gaza.
I stand with the truth.
pic.twitter.com/3r3zuivXIL
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) November 18, 2024
His own staffers, meanwhile, don’t seem to like anything about him.
“Fetterman is in a political no-man’s-land — a disastrous development for a first-term senator. His staffers are infuriated with their boss’s untenable position in the Senate and his buddy-buddy dynamic with Safier,” according to NY magazine.
Republicans, on the other hand, see potential in Fetterman as one of them, though the senator has made it clear he thinks the idea of him switching parties is fairly preposterous.
“If Republicans can’t tolerate even [squishy Republican Sen. Tom] Tillis, Fetterman suggested, how would they accept somebody who supports abortion rights, gay rights, legalizing marijuana and is pro-labor,” Politico reported earlier this year.
President Trump is nevertheless all in on the idea of a conversion. When Fetterman appeared on Fox News host Sean Hannity’s show in March, Hannity told him exactly what the president had said to him about Fetterman a day earlier.
“‘Your job is to tell him: He’s gonna run as a Republican, he’s gonna have our full support, more money than he ever dreamed of, and he’s gonna win big,’” Hannity told Fetterman, recalling Trump’s exact words.
While Fetterman hasn’t taken up the job offer yet, he has been a reliable ally to the president.
“He largely ignores Trump’s transgressions, finds ways to support the White House in high-profile moments and is increasingly ubiquitous when criticizing his own party on right-coded media in ways that affirm conservative views about liberal excess,” Politico notes.
It’s no surprise, therefore, that the senator is increasingly disliked among his own base, with polling showing him deeply, deeply underwater with Democrats, especially compared to the polling numbers he used to pull when he first entered office years ago.
In addition, the senator keeps losing staff members, with the latest resignation coming from his former chief of staff.
“Cabelle St. John, who assumed her role last summer, will officially exit Fetterman’s office in the coming weeks,” The National News Desk reported. “She took over for Krysta Sinclair Juris, who replaced the senator’s first chief of staff.”
