MSNBC hosts have touted Pennsylvania’s Democrat Senator-Elect John Fetterman as a candidate for U.S. president, arguing that he’s “better” than both President Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Hosts Katy Tur, Jen Psaki, and Andrea Mitchell celebrated Fetterman’s midterm victory over Republican Mehmet Oz while suggesting that he could someday run for the presidency.
Fetterman’s victory against Dr. Oz provided Democrats with a flipped Senate seat on Tuesday.
Several MSNBC panelists praised him for bringing new leadership tactics to the Democratic Party.
Tur floated the viability of, “Fetterman, as a nominee at some point for president,” before later going on to say that his record for surpassing Biden and Trump’s vote share in the state.
MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell declared that she had extensive experience with Pennsylvania, and praised Fetterman for making so much progress with voters.
“I spent a lot of time covering this race, and with Pennsylvania politics, going back some decades, and I started my career there, but the fact that John Fetterman did, first of all, so much better with white non-college-educated voters.
“Better than Biden, better than Trump, so he ran ahead of both of them, but he also, you know, did fairly well in the cities and in the [unintelligible] counties.”
She attributed multiple reasons for Fetterman’s victory, including merely being more palatable to many voters than his Republican opposition.
“I attribute that partly due to the extremism at the top of the ticket in Pennsylvania,” she said.
“With Mastriano, Dr. Oz’s comments on abortion, which part of that debate that perhaps did not get as much attention, it got attention from the professionals, but not from a lot of the media, because that really was as big of a deal coming out of that debate as Fetterman’s performance.”
Fetterman was criticized in the final days of the campaign for his lack of transparency over his recovery from a stroke.
His inconsistent answers on issues like fracking were widely panned following a trainwreck debate performance last month.
Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki praised Fetterman for appealing to voters through alleged authenticity.
“I also think he ran everywhere in the state, which is a lesson for Democrats,” Psaki said.
“He left no stone unturned.
“And he ran as exactly who he is.
“I mean I have no doubt that if John Fetterman were sitting here, if he were in a bar or if he was with his family in a restaurant, he would be exactly the same person,” she claimed.
“And voters completely see through that.
“So that is also a lesson for Democrats, too.
“This is a guy you know who he is, you know what you’re getting and that ultimately matters in politics.”
Tur went one step above praising his performance as a candidate for Senate, suggesting he could aim for the presidency but acknowledged there are “some variables.”
“I know there’s some variables, obviously, but I just, you know, what he did in the super-red, deep-red parts of Pennsylvania and the way that he ran ahead of Biden, ran ahead of Trump, and it makes you wonder about his future,” she said.
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