John Fetterman was left amazed by Donald Trump's impact in Pennsylvania. The battleground state's senator likened the former president to the hype surrounding Taylor Swift while predicting that Elon Musk's endorsement is “going to really matter.” The 55-year-old made the remarks during a Saturday interview with the New York Times.
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman ‘astonished’ by Trump's impact in battleground state
“There’s a difference between not understanding, but also acknowledging that it exists and anybody who spends time driving around, and you can see the intensity. It’s astonishing,” Fetterman said of Trump's campaign appearance in Pennsylvania. “I was doing an event in Indiana County. Very, very red. And there was a superstore of Trump stuff, and it was a hundred feet long,” he went.
The Democratic senator continued to say, “[There were] dozens of T-shirts and hats and bumper stickers and all kinds of, I mean, it’s like, Where does this all come from? It’s the kind of thing that has taken on its own life. And it’s like something very special exists there. And that doesn’t mean that I admire it. It’s just — it’s real.”
“It was almost like Taylor Swift kind of swag. It’s like of everything. It wasn’t just a sign. It’s the kinds of thing that has taken on its own life on that. And it’s like something very special exists there. And that doesn’t mean that I admire it,” he went on, adding, “And now [Elon] Musk is joining him.”
{{/usCountry}}“It was almost like Taylor Swift kind of swag. It’s like of everything. It wasn’t just a sign. It’s the kinds of thing that has taken on its own life on that. And it’s like something very special exists there. And that doesn’t mean that I admire it,” he went on, adding, “And now [Elon] Musk is joining him.”
{{/usCountry}}Fetterman noted that the Tesla CEO's endorsement of the former president is a game changer for him in the November election. “I mean, to a lot of people, that’s Tony Stark. That’s the world’s richest guy. And he’s obviously, and undeniably, a brilliant guy, and he’s saying, Hey, that’s my guy for president. That’s going to really matter,” he said.
He went on to explain that he was “alarmed” at first by Musk's presence during Trump's campaign trail, adding that the SpaceX founder is a “bigger star than Trump” in “some sense.” “Endorsements, they’re really not meaningful often, but this one is, I think. That has me concerned,” Fetterman remarked.