Politics
WATCH: Democrat Senator Predicts Left-Wing Riots Will ‘Help’ Trump
Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) and “Real Time” host Bill Maher are both in agreement that the ongoing attacks on federal agents in Los Angeles, Seattle, Newark and other blue cities will come back to haunt the Democratic Party.
Maher noted that Fetterman had been receiving backlash from fellow Democrats after he condemned last week’s unrest in Los Angeles, which caused several injuries to ICE agents and L.A. law enforcement officers when rioters tossed rocks, Molotov cocktails, fireworks and more for multiple days until Trump-deployed National Guard personnel and U.S. Marines managed to restore some semblance of order.
“I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that,” the senator wrote in an X post this past Monday. “This is anarchy and true chaos,” Fetterman continued. “My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement.”
During Friday’s episode of “Real Time,” Maher predicted that the instantly infamous photo of a rioter waving a Mexican flag atop a burned out car will haunt the Democratic Party going forward. “When they see it in a campaign ad, when they see the guy with the Mexican flag and the Waymo burning behind him, it’s going to be good for Trump,” he said.
Fetterman was in agreement, stating that Americans do not want to see Los Angeles “on fire twice in just six months now.” He continued, “And those optics, I just run that through — like what’s the people in Scranton might see those kinds of images and those kinds of videos?”
Elsewhere in the interview, Maher noted that both he and the senator have received flak from the left for meeting with President Trump and some of his top allies in recent weeks. Fetterman in particular has rebuked the left on a number of policy fronts, including illegal immigration and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
“They also seem to go after you because you will talk to the other side. You talked to Trump, we all know that’s bad,” Maher, who had dinner with the president earlier this year, joked. “We’re one of the few people that will actually have dinner with Trump,” Fetterman followed up.
Maher then asked about a recent dinner meeting the senator had with former White House chief advisor Steve Bannon. “I hate to use fake news, but I was just hanging out talking with the other side,” Fetterman said of the meeting. “Now people think I’m going to turn into MAGA, and I’m going to go this other way. My values haven’t changed. Our parties’ values have changed. I’m not going to change my party.”
The senator’s criticisms have not always often to votes, however, as Fetterman revealed that he will not be voting for the Trump-backed “Big Beautiful Bill,” which more than triples funding for border security, makes the 2017 tax cuts permanent and dramatically reforms the nation welfare system.
“The big beautiful bill, I’m going to vote that down. I’m never going to be part of the 40 trillion club. It’s incredibly dangerous. If they pass the BBB, that will change our nation. That will truly impact millions and millions of people,” Fetterman said.
