President-elect Donald Trump praised Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) as an impressive and practical individual after their meeting at Mar-a-Lago. During a conversation with the Washington Examiner, Trump expressed his admiration for Fetterman and his wife, Gisele, describing them both positively.
“It was a totally fascinating meeting. He’s a fascinating man, and his wife is lovely. They were both up, and I couldn’t be more impressed,” Trump shared.
“He’s a commonsense person. He’s not liberal or conservative. He’s just a commonsense person, which is beautiful,” he remarked.
According to the Examiner, Fetterman and Trump engaged in a wide-ranging discussion during their hour-long meeting, covering subjects from border issues to the potential advantages of tariffs for U.S. Steel.
“They’re going to make people that have steel mills do very well, and the people that work at those steel mills are going to do very well,” Trump explained.
Ahead of the meeting, Fetterman issued a statement to CBS News on Thursday, emphasizing his independence from typical party lines and his willingness to engage with anyone. “I think that one, he’s the president, or he will be officially,” Fetterman told CBS News. “And I think it’s pretty reasonable that if the president would like to have a conversation — or invite someone to have a conversation — to have it. And no one is my gatekeeper.”
This meeting marks the first time Trump has met with a Democratic senator at Mar-a-Lago since becoming president-elect. This is especially notable considering Fetterman’s history of working across party lines, having met with several of Trump’s cabinet nominees and sponsoring the GOP-House-passed Laken Riley Act in the Senate as the first Democrat to do so.
“I think if we can’t — there [are] 47 of us in the Senate, and if we can’t pull up with seven votes, if we can’t — at least 7 out of 47, and if we can’t, then that’s the reason why we lost. That’s one of them, that’s one of [the reasons] why we lost, in part,” Fetterman said during an interview on Fox News Channel’s Special Report on Tuesday.
Fetterman was one of 32 other Democrats who helped overcome a procedural obstacle in the Senate regarding a bill that would require the Department of Homeland Security to detain illegal immigrants arrested, charged, or convicted of crimes such as burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.
{Matzav.com}