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<\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>A leading Democratic senator said \u201cextreme voices\u201d on the progressive wing of his party risked alienating regular Americans by \u201cyelling and screaming and demanding new leadership\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with the Financial Times, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/c8fd5ecc-7e77-443d-ab57-5f00e05be610\" data-trackable=\"link\">John Fetterman<\/a> warned the Democratic party against lurching to the left as it struggles to win back voters and muster a coherent opposition to Donald Trump\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re two months into this administration and [progressives are] demanding a push into, and even embracing, some of the kinds of views and positions that made it even more difficult to win in 2024,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>His comments follow calls to oust the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/d3022c39-5296-4f1b-bb29-e104acd9e9ee\" data-trackable=\"link\">Democratic<\/a> top brass and carve out a radical new identity for the party as it looks for direction after losing control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives.<\/p>\n<p>But a knee-jerk response risked repeating the mistakes that cost the party last November, Fetterman said, when Joe Biden was replaced by Kamala Harris as its presidential candidate after his disastrous debate performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had an extreme reaction to the debate and that pushed us into a direction,\u201d Fetterman told the FT. \u201c[Progressives] got what they wanted: they wanted a brand new, younger, fresher messenger, and a lady. And then of course, you know what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fetterman \u2014 who represents the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania \u2014 is both a folk hero to some as a voice of moderation within the party and a hate figure to others because of his support for Israel and praise of Elon Musk. <\/p>\n<p>He has called on Democrats to work across the aisle and criticised his own party for \u201cunhinged petulance\u201d in its dealings with Trump. He caused outrage among some party members in January when he visited the president at his Mar-a-Lago residence.<\/p>\n<p>Fighting has erupted within the party over how to position itself during Trump\u2019s second term. A handful of lawmakers have called for Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, to step down from his leadership role after he led 10 of the party\u2019s senators in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/6bd01d11-6a54-44fb-84fd-bc60310b801b\" data-trackable=\"link\">backing a Republican budget bill<\/a> this month to avert a government shutdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were scathing of the decision as they toured the country this month holding rallies that drew thousands of angry Democratic voters. <\/p>\n<p>But Fetterman, who voted for the bill, said allowing a shutdown would have been disastrous for the party, walking into a Republican \u201choney trap\u201d and triggering outrage among voters. <\/p>\n<p>Democrats, he said, needed to listen to voters in swing states such as Pennsylvania \u2014 where Trump won the biggest Republican margin since 1988 despite heavy campaigning by Harris \u2014 rather than let policy be dictated by lawmakers from staunchly liberal coastal enclaves. <\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--audio o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image js-teaser\" data-id=\"971136df-f080-4d6c-9ab0-5e23ad98323b\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/971136df-f080-4d6c-9ab0-5e23ad98323b\" data-trackable=\"image-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:3000\/3000\"><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cSome of the most extreme voices now are coming from the far-blue places that are removed from the real fight \u2014 and that\u2019s down in the important states that decide who\u2019s going to win the White House,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Simply obstructing Republicans at every turn would be a \u201cpolitical loser\u201d with average Americans, he added, impeding Democrats\u2019 ability to defeat the Republicans in 2028.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe last time we were yelling and screaming and demanding new leadership, how did it work out?\u201d he asked, referring to Biden\u2019s removal. \u201cMaybe we should just realise where we are and try to figure out a way forward \u2014 rather than just reacting.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/6b58eb77-4050-411d-a2f3-09cdd5718c20\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for…\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}