John Fetterman is at it again, playing the role of the reasonable Democrat while quietly doing exactly what Chuck Schumer wants.
This time he went on CNN and declared that President Trump’s acting Attorney General doesn’t stand a chance of getting confirmed.
And the Senate math Fetterman laid out is worth paying attention to, even if his motives are not what he’d like voters in Pennsylvania to believe.
What Fetterman Said on CNN
US Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) predicted on a recent episode of The Arena With Kasie Hunt that the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s attorney general pick would go down in flames.
Hunt asked about the confirmation situation for acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, as lame-duck Senate Republicans have drawn Trump’s ire over their refusal to confirm unless they get written assurance that Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is completely dead.
“I’m a hard no on Blanche, and I mean, I haven’t encountered a single Republican that’s like, ‘Oh, I love that $1.8 billion slush fund,’ or whatever you want to refer to it at all. It doesn’t make any sense. I mean, it’s unconstitutional, honestly, from what it seems. And I don’t see him being confirmed,” Fetterman said.
He continued: “And if anything, I think he’s going to serve as ‘acting,’ or whatever the term, you know, as long as statutorily he’s able to do that, ’cause I don’t see him being confirmed, because there just aren’t any votes. I mean, he incinerated the careers of several Republicans, Cornyn, [Bill] Cassidy and, well, Tillis, too.”
Fetterman added that Senator Mitch McConnell is ill, and concluded: “So, I mean, the math’s just not there, and there aren’t any Democrats certainly that are going to support this.”
“I don’t see him being confirmed at least certainly through the end of the year, honestly,” Fetterman told Hunt. “Trump has zero leverage, whether it’s Cornyn or Cassidy or Tillis or these senators that are leaving.”
The Blanche Nomination and the “Slush Fund” Fight
Two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, have said they still don’t have everything they need from Blanche to vote in favor of his nomination. The issue centers on the uncertain future of the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and outstanding changes they want to see made to President Trump’s IRS settlement agreement.
Blanche told Congress that the administration is not moving forward with the fund, though the message was undercut by Trump saying the fund was “a great idea” and that he will be disappointed if “they don’t get it approved.”
Tillis and Cornyn hold critical votes required to advance Blanche’s nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the acting attorney general can lose only one Republican vote.
Blanche is now unlikely to be confirmed before the Senate departs for its five-week summer recess. The chamber is not slated to return until after Labor Day.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump specifically went after Cornyn, suggesting the longtime senator was standing in the way of the Blanche nomination because the President had backed a primary challenger, Ken Paxton, who defeated Cornyn in May.
And Tillis is not exactly trembling at the threat of a Trump endorsement against him either. North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis announced he won’t seek reelection after drawing Trump’s wrath over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. A senator who isn’t running for anything has no reason to fold.
What Fetterman’s Cheerleading Actually Tells You
Here’s the thing about John Fetterman. The media loves to write him up as a Trump-friendly moderate, a man of the people in a hoodie who defies his party’s left wing. And he does occasionally break with the Democrat caucus in ways that generate headlines.
But look at the record. Heritage Action gives Fetterman a 0% session score and a 4% lifetime score. That is not a moderate. That is a reliable Democrat vote with better PR.
Fetterman supports federally protecting and restoring abortion access, including codifying Roe v. Wade into law. He has described a woman’s right to make healthcare decisions as sacred and non-negotiable and has joined Senate Democrats in introducing legislation to guarantee nationwide abortion access. That is abortion-on-demand until birth, full stop. No amount of hoodie-wearing changes that.
He supports amnesty and pathways to citizenship for illegal aliens. His position includes pathways to citizenship and protections for Dreamers, and he has sponsored measures expanding legal pathways including DACA-related legislation.
He is up for reelection in 2028 in a state Donald Trump won. So he goes on CNN and tells the country that Trump can’t confirm his own attorney general. That is not independent thinking. That is positioning. Every time Fetterman sounds like he’s being reasonable, check what he actually voted for the week before.
The Blanche situation is genuinely complicated, and Fetterman’s vote count may even be accurate. “I think they all realize that the math really aren’t there now,” Fetterman said. He may be right about that particular number. But he is not saying it out of concern for the integrity of the Justice Department. He is saying it because it hurts Trump, and hurting Trump is what Senate Democrats do when they aren’t pretending to be something they’re not.
The bigger question is why the White House allowed the weaponization fund controversy to fester long enough to hand Cornyn and Tillis a legitimate grievance. The DOJ backtracked after bipartisan criticism, but Cornyn and Tillis are pushing for the Justice Department to formalize the verbal commitment in writing. That is not an unreasonable ask. Put it in writing, kill the controversy, and move on.
Instead, Trump publicly said the fund was a “great idea” even as Blanche was telling the Senate it was dead. That kind of mixed signal is exactly what gives senators like Cornyn cover to stall. And it gives Democrats like Fetterman a microphone.
Fetterman will vote against Blanche. Every Democrat will. The confirmation lives or dies on whether Cornyn and Tillis decide the written assurances they receive are sufficient. John Fetterman predicting failure is not analysis. It is a Democrat rooting for the outcome he wants while wearing the costume of a man who calls it straight.
Pennsylvania voters should keep that in mind when 2028 rolls around.
Sources: Mediaite, The Hill, NBC News, ABC News, GovTrack.us, Heritage Action, City & State PA
