BENSON BYTE: Rich Zeoli - There's "Blood in the Water" for Sen. John Fetterman Among Fellow Democrats

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In democratic politics, I think his biggest sin in the base's eyes is his strong vocal support for Israel. It's amazing that's sort of become a disqualifying thing in left-wing politics, but this is where we are right now. I bring this up not just to get some of your reflections on the evolution or the life and times of John Fetterman, but also to get after that. to these reports that the Republicans are now very actively wooing him to not just leave his party, but to join the Republican Party. We will get to that. But just your view on the trajectory of John Fetterman from statewide candidate to now midterm U.S. Senator. So if you go back to when he was running statewide, and he's run statewide a few times, but go back to when Bernie Sanders was running for president, John Fetterman was the chairman in Pennsylvania for his campaign, then he said he would be the Bernie Sanders of Pennsylvania. He was always to the left of the governor when he was lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania. And then he had a stroke. And to listen to Senator Dave McCormick tell it, the Republican, of course, his good friend, John Fetterman had a life and near-death experience. And that opened his eyes and changed his thinking on things. And he just stopped caring about trying to please people and make people happy. Now, does that mean that everything that happened before that? was an act, he was saying these things because he thought that's what he had to do to get elected. I personally think John Fetterman is a very smart, pragmatic politician who sees Pennsylvania for what it is, which is it's much more of a red state than a blue state. It's a state that Donald Trump won twice. It's a state that Donald Trump did very, very well this last election in, speaking to the voters that John Fetterman was directly speaking to, union workers and blue-collar workers, and Trump won those voters. And I also think that John Fetterman is smart enough to realize that that's the way his state is going to go. The problem is if you didn't have a governor who wanted to run for president, He would have an ally in the Democrat governor who also at one point said he was a moderate and ran as a moderate. But now Josh Shapiro has presidential ambitions, and he knows to get through the primary outside of Pennsylvania, but also in Pennsylvania as well. For the 28 nomination, he's got to go to the left. So he's coming out against John Fetterman. So John Fetterman is basically on an island all by himself. He doesn't even have any allies whatsoever who are Democrats. They're all Republicans. So the effort to recruit him to be a Republican is interesting because if you look at his voting record guy, as you know, I mean, the political analysts that you are for Fox News, I mean, he still votes like a Democrat. That's the thing. So like 90 plus percent of the time he's voting with his party, he will occasionally buck them, especially on nominations.

because he feels like the president should have the prerogative, by and large, to pick his people. That is not a crazy position. It was, in fact, the widely held position in the U.S. Senate for a very long time until quite recently, actually. He's also voted to end these Democrat shutdowns, the government shutdowns, because his position was, I'm always going to vote against shutdowns. Again, nothing crazy there. He will say some sensible things on immigration, although he's hardly a conservative fully on that issue. He will talk about not demonizing the president. Of course, Israel being a big one, as I mentioned. But that 90 plus percent voting record with the Dems, to me, that is a big question mark, both in terms of these recruitment efforts, but also in terms of where the Democrats sort of come at him because there are people lining up. to oppose him in a primary, basically saying that he's lost his way. He's become a Republican. He's on Fox News all the time. We've got to get rid of him. And then you look at how he actually votes. It's like, well, it actually doesn't align with this caricature that you've now created of this man. I see a lot of them now making stroke jokes that they used to tuttut about if it were people on the right making them. Now they feel like it's fair game because of political disagreements. So he's just sort of... sitting there. You've got people who want to challenge him in his primary, and he's not up for a couple years here, so he's got time to figure out what happens next. But on these recruitment efforts, and there was some reporting on this in Politico, the quiet Republican effort to flip John Fetterman and rumors about President Trump getting involved in lots of different offers, what I'm trying to figure out is like, I can see, and maybe I'm wrong about this, I can see John Fetterman maybe recognizing that he doesn't have a future in the Democratic Party, which is, I think, much more of a reflection on the party than it is on him given just, let's say the last 50 years of democratic politics and the moment that we're in right now. But if he says, all right, The polling shows that I'm dead in the water as a Democrat moving forward. They will not renominate me. They are out to get me. They want to crush me. I can't get renominated as the incumbent sitting senator who votes with them 90 plus percent of the time. Maybe it's time to become an independent and to run as an independent. They'll field their candidate on the Democratic side. The Republicans will have their person. All be somewhere in the middle and people know me. And his overall approval in the state is pretty strong, although it's terrible among Democrats. It's all this sort of upside down thing. Is that a viable path? Because I just struggle to see him as a Republican. He really isn't. He's not a conservative. He's a little bit more sensible than most Democrats these days, which does not put you on the right, per se, even though you might get demonized that way. I'm just not sure if it is plausible, realistic for him to flip all the way over to Team Red. Might he end up with an eye next to his name rather than an R or a D?

Cheers to America's 250th birthday. Get 20% off your first purchase at Fox Newswineshop.com with code FN Radio 20. 20% discount excludes wine club offers and cannot be combined with any other promotion. Expires July 31st, 2026. Must be 21 order to order. Please drink responsibly. I think he'd be better off running as an independent. And I think he would do better as an independent than as a Republican. There's blood in the water for him. And there was a time when you could get elected. As a statewide Democrat being on a more conservative on issues, which again, John Fetterman is not. But I mean, Bob Casey was the governor of Pennsylvania for many, many years, Bob Casey Sr. Senior, yeah. Casey v. Planned Parenthood. I mean, there was a time when Pennsylvania Democrats were able to win their primary by being. More conservative. That time is long gone. I think it's long gone everywhere in the Democrat Party. I think you and I would both agree on that point. Now it is the far left who controls the party and they're the ones coming out in the primary process. So there's a congressman named Connor Lamb, who also at one point, by the way, pretended like he was a moderate. Yeah, he was one of the blue dog moderate Democrats and the whole left wing turned against him in favor of John Fetterman because they wanted to go with their true left wing progressive in their minds, John Fetterman. Connor Lamb was kind of. of like this normal seeming, normal presenting Democrat. And they said, no, you're a shill, you're a neolib, all these things. And now, you're like, actually, never mind, you're promising to be much more left wing. And we hate this other guy now. So the John Fetterman fans are becoming Connor Lamb fans. It's crazy. It really is. It's something you can't make up. It's like a bad political comedy to think that they went with John Fetterman because he was further to the left than Connor Lamb. And Connor Lamb's whole point was a guy like John Fetterman can't win statewide because he's too far to the left. And now I'm going to beat him in a primary because I'm the actual far left candidate and he's not and he can't win statewide because he's too moderate. I mean, it's just it shows you how bizarre the Democrat Party really is. And so Josh Shapiro, I think it was the other night, said to some... somebody on CNN, I forget who, it might have been Jake Tapper, you know, to John Fetterman, his message was just act like the Democrat that you are and that you ran on and that you were elected as. And my question for the governor is, well, define that governor. What does that mean? Because it means a lot of different things if you watch the politics across this country. But at one point, being a Democrat, like... You meant standing with Israel, meant saying that anti-Semitism was bad, meant saying that the war. I mean, the anti-Semitic folks burned his house down. Right. I mean, the governor's mansion was almost burned to the ground by an anti-Semitic. So, you know, if you want to talk about the rise of political violence, I actually don't put it in that category. I put that particular incident in the anti-Semitic category. Oh, that was Intifada. I mean, I think it was probably a left-wing, intifada, political violence, anti-Semitic. amalgam of motives there. And it's not me making that up. This is based on the statements of that perpetrator. But you're talking about Governor Josh Shapiro. And I think let's turn our attention more to him because I think this is also relevant to a national audience. He's someone who's going to want to claim the mantle of the more kind of sensible mainstream, still progressive, but not too progressive, Democrat who talks a very good game and can get elected.

nationwide. That's going to be the lane that I think he tries to sort of open for himself in a presidential campaign in 2028. He wants to also understand. and therefore achieve this appeasement of the far left base. He's never going to win them, frankly, because he's Jewish in some cases, because he is a Zionist, a dreaded Zionist. There's an element of the far left that will never, ever accept him. But he needs to win over enough of the left to say, no, really, truly, I am one of you. He wants to win his reelection bid this year by a big number, although he has a far less flawed. candidate this time against him on the republican side that's something i'd love for you to comment on but i'm wondering this potential behind the scenes feud that he's got with John Fetterman How much of that could be a grudge? Because I've heard rumors that John Fetterman was telling people close to Kamala Harris that Josh Shapiro is very ambitious and sort of a shark and would try to outshine her on the ticket. Is that something you've also heard? And if so, is that something where Josh Shapiro's like, oh, I'm going to turn right back around with my knife and plunge it into John Fetterman. If he did me dirty that way, we've got bad blood and I'm going to do something about it. Are these things intersecting? No doubt about it. Absolutely. There's a lot of personal history between these two guys for a long, long time. And that aspect of it is true. But let's also think about the fact that for Josh Shapiro, this is an opportunity for him to win over some of those people on the left who otherwise would never like him and would not. you know, support him in any way. Just be like, I also hate John Fetterman. Yeah, it's like, I'm like, like, look at me. I'm standing up against ICE detention centers in Pennsylvania. So like me there. I'm standing up against John Fetterman. So like me there. I'm telling President Trump, stay out of my, my state. Stay out of my commonwealth. So, so please like me there. And, and, and I'm saying that the president, you know, has abused his authority and, and all these other things. So, so look, you know, I'm, I'm more like you than, than you think I am, which is what he has. to do if he's going to even make it out of some of the early primary states. I mean, he's got to, the moderate lane is fine if you're in a general election. In fact, that's what I would think is the only pathway a Democrat has in the general election. But to survive that, when we're talking about this all happening very, very quickly once we get past midterm elections, and you're on the road in South Carolina, you're on the road in Iowa, he's got to try to find some commonality with these people. And at least... to be able to hang in there long enough to watch other candidates drop out, which I think is his strategy. You know, it's it's I have the money. I've got the name recognition. I can survive long enough to get into the top few. And then maybe I can box out the others by having this moderate lane, quote unquote moderate lane all to myself. Yeah, but you also look at the record increasingly less and less moderate. He wants to talk.

the moderate game like Abigail Spanberger and then govern it differently. So there's there's a warning sign here. There's a cautionary tale in Virginia and I think very much keep an eye on Pennsylvania along the same lines. And because Josh Shapiro, I think, is going to be in the conversation here for the next several years at a national level. There's another interesting side drama that I want to ask you about, Rich. There's a story that's come out just recently that Josh Shapiro was actually undermining one of the people on his own party's statewide ticket because he had some sort of personal beef with this person over politics. And so he was secretly, subtly boosting Josh Shapiro was the Republican in that race. Is that vindictiveness? Is that ruthlessness? Is it even true from what you've heard? Everybody who knows Josh Shapiro knows that Josh Shapiro is an incredibly ambitious guy because you wouldn't become governor and he's a young guy. And, you know, he's there. This is his second time running statewide. I mean, he was the attorney general for Pennsylvania. So he's definitely ambitious. And it would not surprise me in the least. Apparently there's this audio recording, you know, the remarks of the Democrat who said this. to college students saying this, Bob Brooks, who said this, said, you know, look, Josh Shapiro's backing me for the house, but, you know, I have to tell you, it really is a situation here where he's really undermining me. And then that's crazy again, because Aaron McClellan has questioned whether Josh Shapiro could be a subordinate to a female president. Brooks is the president of the Pennsylvania Firefighters Union and told students at a college. that Josh Shapiro had asked his union to back Stacey Garrity over McClellan in the 2024 state treasurer's race. Now, I know this guy personally. Garrity's the Republican. Right. And I know the guy who we're talking about here who runs the Firefighters Union, Brooks. What I can tell you is he's told me that this is true. You know, this is a true story. And it's very much about Josh Shapiro taking people off the board who will not be helpful to Josh Shapiro when he runs for president. Even if. They're in his own party and on his state's ticket. He's willing apparently to do that. Very interesting, a character to keep an eye on in national politics, Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania governor. He's got his reelection bid this coming November. Very quickly, Rich, just mentioning it. There's this far left congressional candidate in Pennsylvania who pushed an insane anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about the jihadist attack against Jews in Australia. That's one of the leading... candidates in Pennsylvania in the House race. There's also another fringe candidate who was just arrested for making violent threats against Republicans. So a lot going on in PA politics and it is arguably the most important swing state in the country. So we wanted a big update there with the help of Rich Zioly. Rich, thank you so much.

Guy, thanks for having me, my friend. That was yet another Guy Benson bite. For full episodes of Guy Benson, go to Guy Benson.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to the show ad-free on Fox News Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music with your prime membership, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.