Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) on Saturday called on the Democratic Party to “be less neurotic” and “judgmental” in his latest criticism of his party as it scrambles to re-brand due to plummeting popularity.

Fetterman’s call for change came in response to an LA Times headline slamming California’s Gov. Gain Newsom (D-CA) for using a single-use plastic water bottle during his podcast.

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“It’s just weird, judgmental and straight-up unlikeable,” the Pennsylvania Senator said on X Saturday morning. “Maybe my party should be less neurotic, quit the virtue signaling, and be normal.”

San Francisco investigative reporter Susanne Rust used the plastic water bottle often seen in Newsom’s podcast as a hook to examine how the California governor has drawn fire from environmentalists for rolling back single-use plastic restrictions he helped enact with Democrats in 2022.

But even the governor’s deputy communications director Daniel Villaseñor told the outlet that the piece was “baseless.” 

Newsom himself has joined Fetterman in saying earlier this month on Real Time with Bill Maher that the Democratic brand is “toxic right now.”

“It’s one thing to make noise but you have to make sense,” said Newsom. 

The California Democrat in the past has echoed Fetterman’s objection that Democrats are often “judgmental,” caught up in “cancel culture,” and “talk down to people.”

Fetterman previously criticized Democrats for “shaming and scolding and talking down to people and telling them, ‘Hey, I know better than you,’ or you’re dopes, or you’re a bro, or you’re ignorant or, ‘how can you be this dumb? … And then, by the way, they’re fascists.”

Fellow Democrats have grown increasingly frustrated with Fetterman’s pragmatism, beginning with his stalwart support of Israel since the attacks from Hamas on October 7, 2023. The frustration has grown as Fetterman has continued to denounce violence during anti-ICE protests in California.

On the opposite side of the spectrum within the Democratic Party, 2024 vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) recently called on his party to be more aggressive and “mean” in its rhetoric, particularly against populist Republicans. 

Walz lamented during the South Carolina Democratic Party State Convention that he has been criticized for calling President Trump “a wannabe dictator.”

“‘Oh, the governor’s being mean and the governor’s speaking out on that.’ Maybe it’s time for us to be a little meaner. Maybe it’s time for us to be a little more fierce,” Walz said.

Walz has positioned himself as a Democratic contender in the 2028 presidential election by holding various town halls in swing congressional districts earlier this year. His appearance in South Carolina has only added to that speculation.

Whether moving toward being less “neurotic” or getting “a little meaner,” Democrats largely agree that a change is necessary following the 2024 loss.

NEWSOM BLAMES ‘TOXIC’ DEMOCRATIC BRAND FOR PARTY’S LOW FAVORABILITY RATING

Polling data from NBC in March found that only slightly more than a quarter, 27%, of Americans had a favorable view of the Democratic Party. A mere 7% had a “very” positive view. And a large majority, 62%, of Democrats believe the party needs a change in leadership according to a more recent poll.

Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who conducted the March study, said that the party “needs to be rebooted.”