Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) praised his colleague Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) during an interview this week, stating the Pennsylvania lawmaker has “come a long way” and is the “only” Democrat in the upper chamber “speaking common sense.”
“John Fetterman has come a long way. He’s had all kind of health issues since he got here, but I’ll tell you what, he is the only leader out there that’s speaking common sense,” Tuberville said during a Thursday appearance on Newsmax.
Fetterman warned his Democratic colleagues that if not enough of them supported the Republican-crafted continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through September, the shutdown would throw the country “into chaos” and risk sending the U.S. into a recession.
“Shut the government down, plunge the country into chaos, risk a recession, or exchange cloture for a 30-day CR that 100 percent fails,” Fetterman wrote Thursday.
The Senate voted to avoid a government shutdown in a 54-46 vote Friday, with Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Angus King (I-Maine) supporting the measure.
Democrats in both chambers of Congress and many of the party’s activists showed fierce opposition to supporting the CR. Tuberville said Thursday that Democrats are suffering from the “woke mind virus,” but they will eventually support the funding bill.
“I call it the woke mind virus, that’s what the Democrats have. They don’t wanna work with anybody, they don’t wanna work to save this country. There’s no way they’re gonna shut this government down, it would be political suicide,” the Alabama senator said. “They’ll come to an agreement tomorrow somehow, some way.”
Tubeville also suggested that Democrats should have “fired Chuck Schumer about three months ago and got them a new leader that had some common sense.”
“They will not do anything to help the American people along with President Trump so their leadership is going to get them in trouble,” he said on Newsmax.
On Friday, 10 Senate Democrats voted to advance the funding resolution to a final vote.
Apart from Fetterman, the GOP bill was supported by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who called it a “very bad” bill a day earlier, Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Angus King (Maine), an Independent lawmaker who caucuses with Democrats.
