Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) on Wednesday pushed back on reporting that he and his team raised concerns about Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) to Vice President Harris’s team during the vetting process for her running mate.
“No, I never directed anyone on my team or anyone to do that,” Fetterman told Ali Vitali on MSNBC, when asked whether he and his team had concerns about Shapiro that he took to the Harris team.
“So that’s just, it’s just not true,” Fetterman added.
Politico reported on Saturday that Fetterman was concerned about Harris potentially picking Shapiro, his home state governor, and that the senator’s advisers privately relayed that to Harris’s campaign.
Harris ultimately selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), but Harris and Walz heaped praise on Shapiro during their first rally together in Philadelphia this week. Shapiro, who was reportedly the other top contender for the ticket, spoke before Walz and Harris.
Fetterman on MSNBC did not deny he and Shapiro have had issues in the past, but he said any issue that “ever existed with the current governor has nothing to do with anything that’s been talked about or any kind of public baggage.”
Fetterman instead pointed to the Politico reporting suggesting the underlying disagreement between the two men stemmed from their time serving together on the state’s Board of Pardons.
As Vitali pressed Fetterman on the riff between the Pennsylvania heavyweights, the senator tried to shut down further discussion on the topic, saying, “I thought I was here to talk about, you know, where we’re at now.”
“I just don’t understand why we’re talking about a choice that was already made. I was very clear that the vice president is perfectly capable of picking whoever they want. They have effectively unlimited funding. She has access to every Democratic expert, and she made her choice, and that’s where we’re at right now, and he’s right out on that stage right now in Wisconsin,” Fetterman said in the interview on Wednesday.
“And why are we talking about this weird stuff? I don’t understand that,” Fetterman added.