John Fetterman, the voice of reason.

" John Fetterman

I’ve never had to kind of quote unquote “evolve” on any of my positions in that sense. You know, I was always for the $15 an hour minimum wage. I was always for marijuana legalization. Before I took over, marijuana in Pennsylvania was unheard of, this idea. And now, a majority of our state supports it, and New Jersey just legalized it. 40% of our population will be next door to a veritable candy land of legal weed. And why wouldn’t we in Pennsylvania want to capitalize on that? I risked criminal charges performing the first same sex wedding as an elected official in Pennsylvania. I championed the marginalized and police community relations — all of these things, and the party has kind of consistently moved more towards those viewpoints as opposed to gotten more conservative.

 John Fetterman

"What I think I am is just somebody that sat in front of a laptop for a week making the arguments that needed to be heard, that vote by mail in Pennsylvania is 100% safe, it’s 100% secure. And it’s going to be true, and that all proved to be accurate. But I also said that we need to watch out, because Trump is going to be popular here. He is doing things that were unprecedented in Pennsylvania’s recent political history, and you can’t poll for that. And it turned out that that was accurate."

 John Fetterman

And I said, the president’s team is dicking around with fracking as a wedge issue, when no one cares about it right now with the pandemic and everything going. And they’re leaving alone the bazooka of legal weed. And that would have been a supernova of publicity, of good policy. I mean, at the end of the day, you’re going to be talking about 200,000 odd votes spread over a couple of states made the difference. And if you don’t think legal weed is worth many multiples of that in terms of votes and engagement, you’re mistaken."

I believe President Trump didn't legalize weed because he's racist. Marijuana is used to re-slave Black men in for profit prisons. - James Pitcherella

 

"John Fetterman

He came to a town called Monesson, which is very much like Braddock. And it’s just further down the Monongahela River. And he came there in June of ‘16. And I was struck by this idea, like, why would he come to Monesson? And I said, either he’s crazy, or they’ve figured out something that we don’t know. And the latter was right — is this outreach to these marginalized places. And it turns out that that message and that presence resonated. And ultimately, as we know, he carried Pennsylvania by a slim margin. Even though I am vehemently opposed to much, if not most, if not all of Mr. Trump’s policies, you have to admire that ability to weaponize that kind of just as a political practitioner, that level of savvy. And I immediately started to warn people that it’s starting to really stick and it’s really starting to grow and put down roots.

Kara Swisher 

Well, that’s one of the messages that you have a lot is this idea of powerlessness — the powerlessness of a lot of people who have been abandoned feel, and tapping into that idea, whether it’s in a hopeful way or a fearful way.

 John Fetterman

Yeah, absolutely. And when you show up and you’re running for president and you promise things, you articulate a vision, just the act of showing up, it’s like, wait, Donald Trump came to Monesson? No one listens to me. Or we lost our last fill in the blank 15 years ago, but here he is? So it’s very powerful. And I think it’s unconscionable to do that to people knowing that you have no intention of actually trying to help. But that it was effective is, I think at this point, beyond question. 

 John Fetterman

I want to clear that up. I’m not pro-fracking. I signed that no fossil fuel pledge before the cool kids were doing it back in 2015. I don’t take money from any industry, because I would never want anyone to accuse me of having my judgment clouded by an industry paycheck. I just would never do that. And I won’t take marijuana money either when I run, simply because money does have a corrupting influence. And I want you to trust what I have to say. But this idea — I believe we can’t all work at Google or in Pittsburgh, Duolingo. I’m a 51-year-old man, and I would not respond well if someone who didn’t live in my district or live in my state said, hey, John, go learn how to code.

So I would never say that to anybody. And the fact that we still need to be a manufacturing powerhouse is something that I believe in.

Kara Swisher 

So how do you reconcile those differences? Or do they need to be — because —

 John Fetterman

They don’t need to be —

Kara Swisher 

This is the Democratic party versus the Republican lockstep.

 John Fetterman

Yeah. That’s one thing that the Republicans have always done well. They fall in line when they need to. And we could learn something in terms of that. But now is not the time to train fire on each other as a Democrat. And one of the things about Pennsylvania that reminds me of the nation is that you can be in Center City Philadelphia and have a very distinct and justifiable world view. And you can be standing in Cameron County in Pennsylvania with 5,000 people and have a very distinct and justified world view, and that doesn’t make either of them bad people or either one right or either one wrong. It’s just an idea that I don’t know if it’s fueled by social media or what, but this idea that compromise is surrender, compromise is whatever. And it’s OK to want something, but it’s also incumbent on you to provide that blueprint and the means in order to achieve it as you keep pushing. So we shouldn’t train our fire on anybody at this point. Our country needs to heal. I firmly believe that.

Kara Swisher 

So when Joe Biden says he wants to be the president for all Americans and not just the folks who voted for him, do you feel like that’s going to have resonance in a state like Pennsylvania?

 John Fetterman

Yeah, absolutely. Because let’s talk Pennsylvania politics. The governor and I won by 852,000 votes less than two years ago. He and I banked more votes than any governor or lieutenant governor team in the history of Pennsylvania by far — by far more than he did in 2014 when he won too. So what does that tell you about Pennsylvania? It tells you that there’s actually a lot of people that consider what they really believe in, who they want in their leaders. It’s not this monolithic, raging mass of people. It’s this idea that they have different viewpoints, different considerations based on where they live, what their experiences are. And one isn’t necessarily more valid or invalid than the other. And that’s what I always try to remember. I joke that I’ll be the first Democrat that my parents vote for, hopefully — hopefully."

LISTEN TO:

Math Lessons From Pennsylvania

Hosted by Kara Swisher

Thursday, November 12th, 2020

***

Federal: The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement Act

The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act (HR 3884 / S. 2227) is bipartisan legislation that removes marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, thus decriminalizing the substance at the federal level and enabling states to set their own policies.

The Act would also make several other important changes. For example, it permits physicians affiliated with the Veterans Administration to make medical marijuana recommendations to qualifying veterans who reside in legal states and it incentivizes states to move ahead with expungement policies that will end the stigma and lost opportunities suffered by those with past, low-level cannabis convictions. If approved, the MORE Act also allows the Small Business Administration to support entrepreneurs and businesses as they seek to gain a foothold in this emerging industry.

Progress so far for The MORE Act in Congress:

-   The bill was introduced on July 23rd, 2019
-   Approved in the Judiciary Committee on November, 20th, 2019, with a bipartisan vote of 24-10
- On November 9th, 2020, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer indicated that members will vote on the MORE Act in December of this year.

Enter your information to tell your members of Congress to sign on as a cosponsor and vote for this monumental legislation.