John Fetterman’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert appearance is likely not scoring him any points on the right, but something tells us that won’t bother him too much.
During the Pennsylvanian senator’s appearance, the two discussed his recovery from a recent stroke, his battle with depression, and what it’s like to navigate the chaos of Washington, D.C. When asked how he deals with running into fellow lawmakers whom he’s mocked in memes online, Fetterman didn’t seem stressed.
“You all need to know that America is not sending their best and brightest to Washington, D.C.,” he quipped. “Sometimes you can’t believe that these people are making the decisions that determine the government here. It’s actually scary.”
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Regarding our recent near-government shutdown, Fetterman recalled the moment when it came time for the Senate to vote. “Out of 99 of us, if one single one of us would have said ‘no,’ the whole government would have shut down,” he said, adding that it’s “dangerous” to give individuals that amount of power “because you have some very less gifted kinds of people there that are willing to shut down the government just to score points on Fox.”
Fetterman’s time in Washington has been divisive from the start; as a blue-collared progressive, he doesn’t fit the typical Washington mold. And so, conservatives in Washington have latched onto him as a villain, much like their nemesis Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Consider, for instance, Fetterman’s latest controversy: scandalizing the District by wearing shorts.
As soon as the Senate lifted its dress code, Fetterman caught the brunt of the resulting backlash. “It’s assumed that it was for me,” Fetterman told Colbert, but he insists he never requested the rule change. “When I knew that this was gonna be announced,” he said, “I was like, ‘Oh boy, here it comes.’” He pointed out the irony of fixating on his clothes even amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the impending government shutdown.
“It’s much more important to seize, ‘What will this man wear on the floor of the Senate?’” Fetterman deadpanned.
Beyond the senator’s experience in Washington, Colbert and Fetterman also discussed the intersection of his personal and political life. As he continues to recover from the stroke he endured last year, Fetterman said he now uses a device to provide captions for him to help process information—technology he also brought with him on Late Show.
“I never thought about captioning before I had the stroke,” Fetterman said, “and now I realize I have to be an advocate for anyone with a disability to have the kind of technology that allows them to fully participate in society.”
At the same time, he added, “The better I get, the sadder Fox News becomes.”
