Democratic Sen. John Fetterman has warned that former President Donald Trump has a “special” connection to Pennsylvanians.
Fetterman made the remarks during a conversation with The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg on Thursday during the 2024 Atlantic Festival.
“Trump has a special base within the camp of the party that he has remade and he has a special place in Pennsylvania, and I think that's even stronger since the first assassination attempt,” Fetterman said.
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Jeffrey Goldberg and John Fetterman speak onstage during the “In Conversation with John Fetterman” panel at the Atlantic Festival 2024 in Washington, DC. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images via The Atlantic)
In July, a mentally disturbed gunman attempted to assassinate President Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Although Trump miraculously survived with only a wound to the side of the head, the shooting galvanized support among Trump's most ardent supporters.
“I also want people to understand, it's not science, but there's an energy and there's an anger going on in Pennsylvania, and the people are very committed and strong,” Fetterman said Thursday. “I joked that his sign had become like the state flower, and now you see it everywhere.”
But with President Biden dropping out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris quickly emerging as the Democratic presidential nominee, polls are showing her with a slight lead over Trump in the Keystone State.
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Former President Trump was injured in an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in July. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
A Washington Post poll released Thursday found Harris with 48% of eligible and registered voters, compared with Trump's 47%. A New York Times poll gave Harris a slight lead, with 50% approval rating compared with Trump's 46%.
Fetterman on Thursday expressed skepticism about Harris' lead in Pennsylvania, likening it to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's seven-point lead in the state in 2016, only for that lead to collapse on Election Day.
“Everybody thought we were going to win, but the energy and other elements of the game that I witnessed just didn't match up,” Fetterman recalled, “and sadly, that's what happened.”
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Harris (right) and Trump during the second presidential debate at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“People understand who he is and what he does, and enough people think it's a feature and not a bug,” he added.
