‘That Feels Like a Caricature!’ Jon Stewart Throws Down With Fetterman Over Attacking Democratic Socialists

Jon Stewart and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) got into a lengthy debate about Fetterman’s issues with the progressive movement within the Democratic Party.

Fetterman appeared on Wednesday’s episode of Stewart’s The Weekly Show. Roughly 19 minutes into the show, Fetterman claimed his party was “returning back to the worst impulses.” He cited the calls from progressives to “abolish ICE” and “abolish the border.”

The episode premiered hours after Abdul El-Sayed’s Democratic primary win over Haley Stevens in Michigan. El-Sayed received support from other progressives across the country, including left-wing influencer Hasan Piker.

“I mean, a lot of the people that are are winning,” Fetterman said, “like, you know, when we’re filming this, in Michigan, the the person that’s going to win is calling to abolish ICE. And then the governor race in Wisconsin. She, in fact, she even said abolish prisons as well, too.”

Stewart argued that Fetterman was merely “elevating” the progressive movement and that the Democratic Party was “largely still just the Democratic Party, and there are some people that associate with either the DSA or social democracies.”

“Well, it’s actually many more,” Fetterman responded. “There’s one in Colorado, there’s many in New York, and now, I’ve just seen the recent poll [that] over a third of Democrats identify themselves as socialists in that kind of way. So it is a significant issue.”

Stewart then suggested that the rise in progressive candidates was happening “for a reason,” claiming the Democratic establishment “hasn’t delivered for people.”

“In other words,” Stewart continued, “why are you blaming them when, in some ways, you could be blaming yourself and your colleagues?”

Fetterman reiterated his point that the progressives running on “absurd kinds of positions” would cost them in the general election. He also claimed that the such policies were the reason former Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election.

Moments later, Fetterman share a story about driving “thousands and thousands of miles” across Pennsylvania to drum up support for Harris ahead of the election. In doing so, he observed a lack of “energy” from Democratic voters and realized “we’re going down.”

The conversation continued:

STEWART: But don’t you think this new sort of energy and economic populism is a response to that?

FETTERMAN: Well, what is that? Is that socialism? And in morem it’s communism. It’s, you know– that’s not an economic model that has never worked in the history.

STEWART: But that’s– aren’t you just– that sounds like a caricature. El-Sayed is running on, he wants to ban corporate money, wants to tax, I guess, higher taxes on billionaires for housing and education. Medicare for all. You know, when you say, “That’s communism,” that feels like a caricature.

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