Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman said in a New York Post interview this week that he was against any kind of "squatters' rights" and declared, "I am not woke."
Fetterman sat down at vegan mecca Eleven Madison Park, to which he brought his own red meat and plenty of it, according to interviewer Jon Levine.
“Squatters have no rights,” Fetterman said, telling Levine that he dealt with the issue as mayor of working-class Braddock, Pa. “How can you even pretend that this is anything other than you’re just breaking the law?”
“I am not woke,” he warned.
“It’s wild, that if you go away on a long trip, for 30 days, and someone breaks into your home and suddenly they have rights,” he sad. “This is crazy. Like if somebody stole your car, and then they held it for 30 days, then somehow you now have some rights?”
Fetterman segued into crime overall after talking about squatting, and made it clear he was not going to be soft on the issue.
“I have gone to police funerals,” Fetterman said in reference to NYPD officer Jonathan Diller's shooting death while on duty. “If this individual is convicted, then he should spend the rest of his life and in prison, and never have an opportunity to get out.”
He pointed out that Diller's alleged killer had 21 arrests and should not have gone free to be able to shoot Diller. He said he believes in second chances--but not 20 of them.
"We have to be very smart and aggressive on crime,” he said.
Fetterman overcame a stroke in the months before the election and was at the time compared to President Joe Biden in terms of mental decline. He seems perfectly capable now, and may have just needed more time to heal.
He has become something of a maverick in his tenure in the Senate between his tough stance on crime and stridently supporting Israel and Ukraine as our allies.
And then there are the hoodies and athletic shorts he loves to wear even when most of his colleagues are dressed in suits.
Even though some of his stances sound good, don't be fooled. He's strongly supporting a second Biden term and plans to be a "surrogate" in the state for him.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day, but let's hope he's wrong about Biden winning Pennsylvania in November, however narrowly.
