Sunny Hostin Confronts Sen. John Fetterman Live on The View for Siding with GOP, Says He Brought 'Butter Knife to a Gunfight'

"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin pressed Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., on Tuesday on why he voted to end the government shutdown, accusing him of bringing "a butter knife to a gunfight."

via; EW

One day after publicly criticizing the actions of eight Democrats who sided with Republican officials in a move to end the longest government shutdown in American political history, The View cohost Sunny Hostin brought her ire straight to Sen. John Fetterman live on the air.

The show welcomed Pennsylvania Sen. Fetterman — who, alongside seven others, defied select pushback from within his party and voted with Senate GOP members to end the shutdown — to discuss the political mess. And Hostin, a legal expert and former federal prosecutor, didn't hold back during the tense interview.

Hostin brought up her feeling that "more Americans on both sides of the aisle" are "blaming Republicans" for the historic six-week shutdown — and even brought up Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who also "blamed the GOP," Hostin said.

She then brought up last week's blue wave that saw key Democratic wins in many local elections at the polls, telling Sen. Fetterman that "you had momentum" before asking, "Why give in now? Why bring a butter knife to a gun fight? Are you willing to gamble that the GOP will negotiate in good faith once the government reopens, because if that gamble is wrong, half a million Pennsylvanians that you represent, their healthcare costs will skyrocket if you’re wrong? And I believe you are wrong."

Sen. Fetterman responded with a firm criticism for Rep. Greene, a noted conservative known for outbursts in politics whose recent press tour has attempted to position her as a more even-tempered unifier amid the shutdown.

"Well, first of all, Marjorie Taylor Greene is quite literally the last person in America that I’m going to take advice to get my leadership and values from. If Democrats are celebrating crazypants like that, that's on them," Sen. Fetterman replied. "I don’t need a lecture. I don’t need lecture from, whether it’s Bernie [Sanders] or the governor in California, because they're representing very deep blue populations and a lot of those things were part of the extreme."

He added a question back to Hostin: "Why have we arrived here after the election a year ago? We want to forget some of the things that cost us that election, and now, for me, that’s why I’m trying to remind people, the extremism, we can’t return to those kind of things, and realize we need to find a way forward."

One day prior, Hostin spoke at the Hot Topics table of Democrats like Sen. Fetterman, who are refusing to be part of the "opposition" party she wants to see go up against the conservative right — especially as the war over healthcare premiums and SNAP benefits raged amid conversations about the shutdown.

"Rather than cite Marjorie Taylor Greene, I’m going to cite one of the new governor-elects saying that my election is not a green light to continue the shutdown, because I promise you this isn’t a political game," Sen. Fetterman went on. "It is viewed like that by many of us, but the reality is that 42 million Americans are now not sure where they’re next meal is going to come from because we voted like that or people that haven't been paid for five weeks now."

Elsewhere in the interview, conservative panelist and former Donald Trump White House staffer Alyssa Farah Griffin pushed Sen. Fetterman on his view concerning Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who also received criticism from within the party for moving to end the shutdown with the Senate vote.

When Griffin asked Sen. Fetterman if he thought Sen. Schumer is the “right leader in this moment” for the party, he replied, “That’s not really my concern right now. It’s not a leadership situation" he's focused on.

"We’re living in the backlash of the election. America decided to put us in the minority in terms of leadership right now. What defines leadership? For me, that’s order and logic," he responded. "We were all energized by the election last week, and for me, it’s like, let’s take the win on that. We know there’s a lot of backlash to this kind of chaos. Now voters are going to respond to more order and the kind that’s not violating our core values to plunge our country into chaos for 42 million Americans' food security. That’s the essence of people that I fight for. We have to be able to disagree on these things."

*****

Ever since Fetterman had that stroke, Lurch has been out here acting like a DINO, similar to Joe Manchin and Kristin Sinema. He has never stood for defending Democratic ideologies, even though that's the platform he ran on to win his Senate seat.

Good on Sunny for holding his feet to the fire.