U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick condemned political violence and extreme rhetoric during a joint appearance Tuesday on Fox News’ “Special Report.”
The senators said their joint appearance was an attempt to turn down the political temperature following last week’s assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.
“I feel like it’s important that people can witness a Democrat and a Republican having a conversation after this,” Fetterman, a Democrat from Braddock, said as he sat beside McCormick, a Republican from Pittsburgh’s Shadyside.
While the senators acknowledged that extreme rhetoric is being used by people on both the political left and right, McCormick said, “I do believe that we’re seeing this trend on the fringe left where you’re using terms like ‘Nazism’ and ‘fascism’” to describe political opponents.
“When you see dangerous rhetoric — like ‘fascist’ and ‘Nazism’ and ‘authoritarianism’ and ‘the end of democracy’ — that’s permission. That takes us down a path where the inevitable next step is violence,” McCormick added.
“Do not ever, ever, ever compare anyone to Hitler. You can read up on exactly what he’s responsible for — 75 (million) to 80 million lives lost in World War II,” Fetterman said, referring to the estimated global death toll of the war. “You don’t compare him to anyone. If you do, then you will incite somebody to say, ‘Well, now, I feel like I have to stop that and take them out.”
“The ability to disagree with your adversary but not hate them, not make them the enemy, is at the core of America,” McCormick said. “We’re very divided as a state. I get horrible things said about me on social media, so does Senator Fetterman. We’ve got to get above that as a country, and the first step is stopping this kind of hijacking the language and inciting political violence.”
Pennsylvania is one of just four states with a split U.S. Senate delegation. Like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin has one Republican senator and one Democratic senator. Maine has a Republican senator and an independent senator who caucuses with Democrats in the chamber, while Vermont has a Democratic senator and an independent who caucuses with Democrats.
