Fetterman Pushes Back on Fox Anchor Saying He Claimed Trump Tariffs Went ‘Pretty Well’

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) explained he sees obvious negatives to President Donald Trump’s tariffs after Fox News anchor Aishah Hasnie noted he was one of multiple Democrats to say the economic strategy turned out “pretty well” for the country.

Fetterman joined Hasnie on Saturday following the Supreme Court ruling that Trump’s tariffs are illegal this week in a 8-3 decision. The president has said his administration will find other avenues for tariffs, and he ripped into justices who shot them down, some of whom he nominated, calling them an “embarrassment” to their families.

Trump announced on Saturday he’s hiking global tariffs across the board to 15% “effective immediately.”

Hasnie noted that Fetterman, Bill Maher, and others were voices not as critical of Trump’s reciprocal tariffs as other Democrats, but Fetterman pushed back on the description, saying he has a problem with how widespread Trump’s tariffs have been.

Fetterman told Fox News Digital in August that tariffs were “going well” and not nearly as bad as Democrats had predicted.

“[Bill Maher’s] really one of the oracles for my party, and he acknowledged it, it’s like, hey, he thought that the tariffs were going to tank the economy, and then he acknowledged that it didn’t,” he said at the time. “So, for me, it seems like the E.U. thing has been going well, and I guess we’ll see how it happens with China.”

“I mean, what I said was in the context that, yeah, you didn’t crater the economy and you did not trash the stock market, but I have also said there’s part of those tariffs that I’ll never get. I don’t understand the upside to go after our allies, whether it’s Canada or Mexico or, you know, other nations in Europe,” the senator explained on Saturday.

The tariffs should be used to “isolate” and hold accountable countries like China, he added. Right now, he argued, tariffs have simply made everyday items like coffee more expensive.

Still, Fetterman urged Trump to work with Congress, arguing he has far more of an “open mind” than others in his party.

Check out the exchange below:

AISHAH HASNIE: Senator, you have said before that this tariff trade war has actually worked out pretty well for the U.S. Bill Maher has said something similar, too. We didn’t into a deep depression, things are okay with the economy. Would you or any Senate Democrat give congressional authority to issue tariffs if he were to come and ask for it?

JOHN FETTERMAN: I mean, what I said was in the context that, yeah, you didn’t crater the economy and you did not trash the stock market, but I have also said there’s part of those tariffs that I’ll never get. I don’t understand the upside to go after our allies, whether it’s Canada or Mexico or, you know, other nations in Europe. I don’t understand that because they are allies and I think — now, I think he should work with Congress because I think at least with me, you have an open mind and if we can use those kinds of tariffs to go after China and isolate China, I absolutely would vote and want to support those things.

HASNIE: He is going to China in a couple of weeks now and he has often said that tariffs give him a lot of leverage. So, what do you think of these 15% tariffs that he just announced?

FETTERMAN: Well, I do agree. That’s why those tariffs, you know, do have some leverage and I do think that the president is entitled to have some of that kind of leverage, but to use that kind of leverage on someone like China, not going after, you know, our allies like Canada and others. Like Brazil, to me, it seems like it’s just made coffee unnecessarily more expensive. So, for me, if you can isolate and hold China accountable, I would absolutely support that and use the kinds of leverage for those tariffs.

Watch above via Fox News.

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