Trump challenges of election 'designed to damage and disenfranchise' says Pennsylvania lieutenant governor
After correctly predicting his home state would deliver Joe Biden the presidency, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman said on ABC News' "Powerhouse Politics" podcast that he and Gov. Tom Wolf are not worried about the state's Republican legislature stepping in to choose electors to upend the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
"Everyone just needs to kind of take a deep breath," Fetterman said, alluding to the upcoming transfer of power to the Biden administration. "Everybody knows how this movie is going to end -- everybody knows, including the president."
Fetterman told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl and Political Director Rick Klein that he believes President Donald Trump is aware of his favorable positioning to run for another term in 2024 and will maintain an active presence in the public sphere after leaving office.
"I guarantee he will be that president that doesn't fade away," Fetterman said on the podcast.
"He is going to use his 90 million followers and he is going to continue to lob chaos into the process after Joe Biden takes over because why not, at this point? And I'm not taking any of this seriously as an American -- not as a Democrat -- as an American," he added.
On the heels of the election, Fetterman said he went on a tour of Pennsylvania's Republican strongholds and found that Trump's supporters are standing their ground in expressing solidarity with the president on his unfounded claims of mass voter fraud costing him a second term.
"There's been two cases of voter fraud and criminal charges in Pennsylvania and they both involve Republicans voting for relatives, either dead or alive," Fetterman said.
Still, on Tuesday, in a hearing in the U.S. District Court in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Rudy Giuliani presented a case that echoed the president's false claims by arguing, without evidence, that the Trump campaign could show 1.5 million Pennsylvania ballots were somehow illegally counted.
Fetterman, who compared Giuliani to a "less qualified" version of attorney Lionel Hutz, a fictional cartoon character on The Simpsons, said the Trump campaign's ongoing, yet largely fruitless, legal efforts have become reminiscent of "yelling fire in a crowded theater."
"This is not protected speech, this is not a search for the truth. This is malicious speech, designed to damage and disenfranchise that has no basis, not only in reality, but also in, in this understanding that we have as Americans, of a peaceful transition of power and a clear and free election," Fetterman said.
Fetterman predicts the theme of a divided government is likely to continue once Biden takes office and says winning both of Georgia's U.S. Senate seats will be "a heavy lift."
"It seems to be that the president-elect is is signaling that his administration will move along the Pareto frontier and try to impact and accomplish as many left-leaning goals through executive order and these other kinds of mechanisms that don't require legislative action," Fetterman said.
"Everyone needs to train their collective guns metaphorically on the virus, too," he said, noting that combatting the pandemic could provide Americans with a united front.
"COVID is running rampant both in Pennsylvania and across this country, as we head into Thanksgiving, and one of the great tragedies, other than the lives and treasure that this virus has squandered in our nation is that we have come to see each other as the enemy instead of this virus. I think that's really the tip of the Biden spear, you know, when he assumes the presidency," the lieutenant governor said.
Along with Wolf, Fetterman assumed office in 2019 after serving as mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, since 2005. In 2016, he made a run for U.S. Senate but lost the Democratic primary. Now, with the recent announcement of Republican Sen. Pat Toomey's retirement, Fetterman could be looking at another run to represent the Keystone State in the upper chamber.
"There's two lanes that I'm considering and it's -- it's flattering to even be asked (about a potential run) and honestly, I don't know I don't have a timeline specifically (for making a decision)," Fetterman said.
For now, Fetterman appears to be leaving the door open, saying that he would choose whichever lane that would allow him "to make the most impact and and have the most benefit to what I honestly believe in."
