Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) urged everyone to tone down the rhetoric about President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk moving to dismantle federal agencies and the subsequent court rulings halting some of their efforts.
Some of Trump’s allies, including Musk and Vice President JD Vance, suggested this week that courts have no authority to block the president’s policies and that they should be impeached.
“When it was [President] Joe Biden, then you [had] a conservative judge jam it up on him, and now we have liberal judges that are going to stop these things. That’s how the process works,” Fetterman told HuffPost on Wednesday, referring to nationwide injunctions of Biden’s policies by conservative judges during his presidency.
The Pennsylvania Democrat called Musk’s actions shutting down agencies and putting thousands of workers on administrative leave without congressional approval “provocative” and said they are “certainly a concern.”
However, the senator rejected claims from others in his party about the country facing a constitutional crisis.
“There isn’t a constitutional crisis, and all of these things ― it’s just a lot of noise,” Fetterman said. “That’s why I’m only gonna swing on the strikes.”
Fetterman often criticized Republicans during his first years in the Senate but changed tactics after Trump’s election last year. He recently met with the president at his Florida estate, backed his immigration bill, cheered his Israel policies and voted to confirm some of his less-controversial Cabinet nominees.
“I’m still wishing him the best. I’m effectively rooting for him and all the nominees because they’re working for America,” Fetterman said Wednesday after voting against advancing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Fetterman’s friendly approach to Trump stands in contrast to others in his party who have raised alarms about the administration ignoring Congress by defunding federal agencies and then further suggesting the courts should be ignored if they object.
“This isn’t hyperbole to say that we are staring the death of democracy in the eyes right now. The centerpiece of our democracy is that we observe court rulings,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Tuesday. “No one is above the law, and whether we like it or not, the courts interpret the law.”
Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday blamed the media for “fear-mongering” about the threat of a constitutional crisis.
“The real constitutional crisis is taking place within our judicial branch, where district court judges in liberal courts across the country are abusing their power to unilaterally block President Trump’s basic executive authority,” Leavitt told reporters during a press briefing at the White House.
Most Republicans believe everyone should follow court rulings, however.
“I mean, we have a judicial system,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters Tuesday. “If you don’t like the ruling, you can appeal the ruling, and you can follow that through. But we are a nation of laws, and it is not necessarily for you or I to be the final arbiter here. This is why we entrust the judiciary, with this response.”