Fetterman's a no as Senate Republicans debate new voting restrictions

[FakeNoose]

Last edited Thu Mar 19, 2026, 11:00 AM - Edit history (2)

UPDATED TO ADD WORKING LINK

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette link: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-nation/2026/03/18/fetterman-congress-trump-elections-voting/stories/202603180091

Archived (no paywall) link: https://archive.ph/u8BIL

The Pennsylvania senator sometimes crosses party lines. Not this time.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Fetterman broke with his party and voted to fund the federal government, and to oppose legislation limiting President Donald Trump’s war against Iran. He has been an unabashed supporter of Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, and of Trump’s capture of Venezuela leader Nicolas Maduro.

But as the Senate debates legislation to put new restrictions on voting in advance of this fall’s midterm elections — where control of Congress is at stake — Mr. Fetterman is aligned with his party against the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which would require people to prove their citizenship and bring photo identification to the polls.

“He's in office as a Democrat,” said Lew Irwin, a political scientist at Duquesne University. “He was elected as a Democrat. This is where he shares the perspective of his fellow Democrats that this is a solution in search of the problem.”

... [ snip] ...

Gov. Josh Shapiro, who successfully fought against Trump’s bogus charges of voter fraud in the 2020 election as attorney general, told reporters last month that he opposed “the idea that we would turn over our elections to Donald Trump, given his track record of election denialism, given his track record of taking me to court 43 different times during the 2020 election, to try and overturn the will of the people here in Pennsylvania.”

"By the way, he went 0 and 43 I went, 43 and 0, and we had a free and fair, safe and secure election,” Mr. Shapiro said. “The last person who should be running our elections in the United States is Donald Trump.”

Under current Senate rules, 60 votes are needed for passage, and Republicans have only 53 seats. Trump is pushing Republicans to kill the filibuster, doing away with the 60-vote threshold, which they can do with just 50 votes.

- more at link -



Update to add working link: My apologies for the broken link, however this link on top works now!

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Even Fetterman knows who got him elected

Red County PA populations by and large do not have passports. Some only travel 200 miles afield their whole lives. So I don't see this as progress, I see it as self-serving that needs not to be misinterpreted.

[2naSalit]

2. What about...

The Amish and others? They vote, don't they? How many of them have a passport or state ID/Driver's license?

Just in that state alone there are many who would be put at a disadvantage with the requirements in the Bill.

I have all my papers but it wasn't cheap and took time. Getting a passport takes a couple months, usually, so it's really a poll tax.

[Akakoji]

5. Actually, 95% of Americans

End up living their entire lives within 50 miles from where they were born.

[ColoringFool]

11. So?

[ProfessorGAC]

13. Not The Same Thing

I have lived with 55 miles of where I was born, and 20 miles from where I grew up my entire life.
But, I've worked in 41 countries outside the US, have visited 49 of the 50 states, and when I retired my frequent flyer miles on my primary airline slightly exceeded 2.5 million miles.
Changing locations has nothing to do with whether someone lived a fully parochial existence.

[samplegirl]

3. We'll blow me down

What a joke! He's a joke!

[twodogsbarking]

4. Trump said we won't need elections and they want to put him in charge of elections. Electile disfunction.

[FakeNoose]

14. Yes that's exactly the point that Gov. Josh Shapiro made

Chump cannot be in charge of any elections. Every state (and county) manages its own elections and that's how it has always worked. There is no need to change the system. Even Fetterman gets it!

This SAVE Act - and it will never be enacted - would be a disaster.

[3Hotdogs]

6. Somethin' about a busted clock... it was when you had those clocks that had little stick thingies that went

round and round.

[Vinca]

7. Does the guy have dual personalities? You never know where he is from one day to the next.

[FakeNoose]

15. I think he's getting some input from Josh Shapiro these days

... and also from Pennsylvania Democrats who are getting damn angry!

[hatrack]

8. For now . . .

I'll believe him when the vote is completed.

[GiqueCee]

9. Even though I don't live in Pennsylvania...

... and despite his gimmick of dressing like a slow-witted teenager, I was a vocal supporter of his. Please note the past tense.

There's really very little to parse regarding the SAVE Act. Republicans know they can't win free and fair elections because voters who pay attention to the FACTS utterly reject their diseased and divisive policies. They wipe their asses with the Constitution, and dismiss that line in the Preamble, "promote the general Welfare", because the only welfare they're concerned with is their own, and that of their lords and masters, the billionaires. They don't give a nanoparticle of a shit about their constituents, or the nation as a whole, they are obsessed with, and determined to wield, total dominion over the lives of others, more commonly referred to as POWER.

[FakeNoose]

16. He's talking that way because of his stroke that he suffered in 2022

It happened immediately after the Nov. '22 election. Then he went into depression and a downward spiral, with his inability to process normal speech etc. He sometimes needs to read subtitles whenever he's in a meeting because he has trouble with processing language. It's not a mental deficiency, it's a problem with connecting and communicating thoughts.

Well OK we're all sympathetic, but we also need him to be our Senator. We need him to stand up to Chump and vote the way he told us he would whenever he was elected in 2022.

Chump has been taking advantage of Fetterman and possibly even blackmailing him. The best thing that could happen is that John Fetterman should resign this year and allow Shapiro to appoint a replacement. Then we would elect a new Senator in 2028.

Even if he doesn't resign, Fetterman won't get re-elected, that's a given. Sad but true.

[karynnj]

20. The stroke happened a few days before the PRIMARY

It took a long time before people learned how damaging it was.

My guess is those closest to him on his team really believed he would continue to recover to end up where he had been. It can happen and the degree of recovery takes a lot of time to know.

Early voting had already happened. People voting election day voted without knowing how bad the stroke was. I sympathize with his team at that point. As it was not clear how full his recovery would be, it would have felt like betraying him when he was down to suggest that he stand down at that point and there probably was little chance he would have done so.

[FakeNoose]

21. I don't think he has much of a team any more, they've mostly quit

Also his health problems began long before the 2022 primary. He had already collapsed while he was presiding over the state senate as well as losing 150 lbs. in 2018. He wasn't truthful about his health conditions even before that time.

[ColoringFool]

10. Duquesne Prof Is A "NS, Sherlock." (Link Doesn't Work.)

[radical noodle]

12. It works if you copy/paste all of it

But it's paywalled, so you may not want to bother.

[FakeNoose]

18. Here's the archived link

https://archive.ph/u8BIL

The Post-Gazette will let you read the story even if you aren't a subscriber.

But I agree that they are very intrusive and annoying, so I should have added the No Paywall link earlier this morning.

[radical noodle]

22. Thanks so much!

[FakeNoose]

17. I added a working link - thanks for letting me know

Sorry, I posted this at 6 a.m. before my first cup of coffee.

[UTUSN]

19. Whew for, gee thanks.