Fetterman says he is always going to reject ‘extremes and socialism’ in surprise video message praising Republican colleague at GOP convention
Senator John Fetterman’s video message, ahead of Senator Dave McCormick’s speech in Dallas, has just aired.
In the video, Fetterman is seen standing outside the Mon Valley Works – a processing plant operated by US Steel in Pittsburgh.
“Yes, I’m a Democrat. Why am I here talking to you today? Because well, I’m a commonsense Democrat. I’m always going to stand with America,” the Pennsylvania lawmaker, who has increasingly broken with his party since he was elected in 2022, said in the pre-recorded message. “I’m always going to reject the extremes and socialism and that anti-American way of life. Dave McCormick is the kind of senator that gets the job done, and he’s going to fight for Pennsylvania.”
In the stunning display of support for a Republican colleague in the Senate, Fetterman called McCormick his “great friend”, and said that he will work with him and Donald Trump “to fight and defend the steel way of life”.
Key events
A reminder that Senator John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat, has been frequently dodging work, as well as his own constituents, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.
The Journal reported that Fetterman has forgone many of the duties of his office to focus on supporting Israel and making the rounds in conservative media.
The Senator has also reportedly made a habit of denying or canceling meetings with constituents, including, in one case, bailing on a group of paralyzed veterans who’d arrived at his office.
Radio host Adam Carolla just joked with the crowd in Dallas, saying that Donald Trump is backstage.
“I just saw the man,” Carolla said. “Actually, I was lying. He’s not in the building yet.”
Fetterman says he is always going to reject ‘extremes and socialism’ in surprise video message praising Republican colleague at GOP convention
Senator John Fetterman’s video message, ahead of Senator Dave McCormick’s speech in Dallas, has just aired.
In the video, Fetterman is seen standing outside the Mon Valley Works – a processing plant operated by US Steel in Pittsburgh.
“Yes, I’m a Democrat. Why am I here talking to you today? Because well, I’m a commonsense Democrat. I’m always going to stand with America,” the Pennsylvania lawmaker, who has increasingly broken with his party since he was elected in 2022, said in the pre-recorded message. “I’m always going to reject the extremes and socialism and that anti-American way of life. Dave McCormick is the kind of senator that gets the job done, and he’s going to fight for Pennsylvania.”
In the stunning display of support for a Republican colleague in the Senate, Fetterman called McCormick his “great friend”, and said that he will work with him and Donald Trump “to fight and defend the steel way of life”.
Ohio Senator John Husted, another Republican facing a tough race in November, spent time attacking his Democratic challenger, Sherrod Brown – a former senator who lost his seat in 2024.
“It’s also hard to explain why Joe Biden and Sherrod Brown raised our taxes to fund benefits for illegals and shift our jobs to China,” Husted said. “Sherrod Brown put Shanghai over Steubenville and Beijing over Brunswick, didn’t he, Ohio?”
One of the more vulnerable Republicans who IS at the GOP midterm convention is Representative Rob Bresnahan – a Pennsylvania Republican who flipped his seat red in 2024, but is facing a tough race this November. Bresnahan is hoping to fed off Paige Cognetti, the Democratic mayor of Scranton.
Bresnahan spent most of his speech focused on his battleground district’s industrial roots.
“When manufacturers can keep more of what they earn, they can buy equipment, hire workers, and train apprentices,” the congressman told the crowd in Dallas. “I’m ready to keep fighting to preserve these tax cuts and stop Democrats from repealing them.”
Bresnahan barely mentioned Trump by name, and avoided talking about social issues. “Our future depends on making what America needs right here at home, with American workers not relying on other countries to do it for us, our future depends on ensuring the next generation can earn a good living in the communities that built this country from the ground up,” he said.
Ken Paxton, Texas’ attorney general and the Republican nominee for US Senate in the state, is now delivering a speech that is supposed to be focused on affordability.
But Paxton spent time issuing several digs at his Democratic rival, James Talarico. “I will fight to preserve the American dream. James Talarico is running to destroy it,” Paxton said. “This guy is really obsessed with transitions. He wants to transition your kids. He wants to transition Texas off of oil and gas. How about we transition him and his crazy ideas right out of Texas?”
Before he left the stage, Paxton said that if he loses the Texas Senate seat “we lose the commonsense revolution”. The scandal-plagued Republican received Trump’s endorsement, that allowed him to defeat the incumbent John Cornyn in the GOP primary earlier this year. But Paxton’s campaign has also received a boost from Maga Inc – which has spent $10m on ads to attack Talarico.
Fetterman set to issue video message praising Trump at GOP midterm convention – report
John Fetterman – the Democratic senator from Pennsylvania who has found himself increasingly estranged from his party – is set to issue a video message praising Donald Trump at the GOP midterm convention in Dallas, according to a report from Axios.
The first-term lawmaker – who has cast several votes bucking Democrats – will be in the video that will play ahead of his colleague Senator Dave McCormick’s appearance on stage. Fetterman will thank Trump for his work in helping the US steel industry.
Citing unnamed sources, Axios reports that Fetterman isn’t expected to announce that he’s switching parties, but he is going to distance himself from the left flank of the Democratic party. McCormick helped arrange Fetterman’s appearance, according to one of Axios’ sources with knowledge of the situation.
Fetterman was the sole Democrat to vote no on several war powers resolutions to curb the Trump administration’s military action in Iran. Earlier this year, he voted to confirm Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Markwayne Mullin, and last year Fetterman routinely joined Republicans on key votes to keep the government open – while Senate Democrats withheld support for key appopriations bills to protest expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.
According to a New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena poll in August, 74% of Democrats in Pennsylvania had a favorable opinion of Fetterman in 2024 – two years after he won his Senate election – that has now fallen to 22%.
Meanwhile, only 25 % of Pennsylvania Repbublicans viewed Fetterman favorably in 2024. That number has shot up to 73%.
Despite not confirming whether he would seek a second term in office, Fetterman recently said that he has no intention to switch parties. He has, however, issued a caveat – he would consider leaving the Democratic caucus if it became the “anti-Israel party”.
Fetterman has emerged as one of Israel’s most prominent advocates among Senate Democrats, even as others in the party back away from their traditional support for the country amid accusations that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government committed genocide in Gaza.
Trump is now participating at a Maga Inc meeting in downtown Dallas, ahead of arriving at the midterm convention. This, you may remember, is the Super Pac that supports the president and many of the candidates he backs.
Maga Inc is sitting on a $400m war chest, and has earmarked $47m for six competitive Senate races and one competitive House race, via its No Going Back PAC Inc, according to the New York Times.
Deployed emergency slide on Air Force One was ‘accidentally triggered’ ahead of Trump takeoff for Dallas
A person briefed on the situation told the press pool traveling with Donald Trump that members of the US air force, which operates Air Force One, “accidentally triggered” the emergency inflatable slide that deployed before the president’s takeoff to Dallas. Trump is set to deliver the keynote speech at the GOP midterm convention.
However, Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, claimed that the slide was “checked out to make sure everything works perfectly”.
Missouri’s Trump-backed voting maps approved by federal panel challenged in supreme court
Lucy Campbell
Opponents of congressional redistricting in Missouri appealed to the US supreme court on Wednesday after a federal panel let stand a ruling allowing the state to use a new map backed by Donald Trump in November’s midterms.
The map’s challengers, including a group opposed to the Republican-drawn map called People Not Politicians, made the request in an emergency filing, moving swiftly after Stephen Clark, a St Louis-based chief US district judge, issued his decision on Tuesday.
Clashing rulings had plunged Missouri’s congressional elections into uncertainty, less than two months out from the crucial midterms that will decide which party controls a closely divided congress – and will impact the fate of Trump’s agenda for the rest of his term.
First, the conservative supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh had denied an emergency request from Missouri officials to use a congressional map in November that was redrawn with Trump’s support to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. That decision effectively allowed a Missouri supreme court ruling to revert back to the 2022 map to stand.
Not long after, a ruling by Clark, who was appointed by Trump, issued a contradictory decision, temporarily preventing the state from using its old congressional maps in the November elections. The temporary restraining order, or TRO, ordered Missouri to use the newly drawn districts that favor Republicans, which the state used in its August primary elections.
Clark’s order was then swiftly appealed to the eighth US circuit court of appeals.
During his remarks in Dallas, Michael Whatley – the former Republican National Committee (RNC) chair and GOP nominee for US Senate in North Carolina – avoided spending much time talking about the Trump administration’s policies like tariffs, the war in Iran and the ensuing economic strain. Instead, Whatley spent much of his speech denigrating his Democratic challenger – former governor Roy Cooper.
Whatley said the “blood” of Iryna Zarutska – the Ukrainian refugee who was fatally stabbed onboard a light rail train in Charlotte by Decarlos Brown Jr – is on Cooper’s “hands”.
Brown has a documented history of prior arrests, other legal problems and mental health issues. However, the Trump administration and its Republican allies seized on the case, claiming the killing demonstrated how local leaders, judges and policies in Democratic-led cities were failing to protect residents from violent crime.
“That monster should have never been on the streets,” Whatley said in Dallas. “When it comes to keeping our kids and our communities safe, Roy Cooper was the worst governor in the history of North Carolina.”
Several Republicans in competitive races stay away from GOP midterm convention
While there are dozens of Republican lawmakers and candidates who are facing tough races this November at the convention in Dallas over the next two days, there are several who have chosen not to attend the event that has been hastily thrown together at the behest of Donald Trump.
Many of these Republicans are up for election in competitive districts and states where the administration’s policies have proven unpopular. If these nominees show up in Dallas, they could run the risk of isolating swing voters they need to court. This includes Susan Collins, the five-term incumbent senator from Maine, who is contending with a deluge of anti-Trump animus in her purple state ahead of her re-election race, and has frequently bucked her party to pushback against the president. Her campaign has told various outlets that she would be constituents back in Maine during the convention.
Similarly, Dan Sullivan – the Republican senator from Alaska who is facing a tough contest against former Democratic congresswoman Mary Peltola – is opting to skip the event. Sullivan has spent Wednesday on the campaign trail in Alaska, posting videos from various stops. This comes after the US president said last week that he would travel to the state to campaign on behalf of Sullivan ahead of the general election.
Meanwhile, Tom Barrett, a Michigan representative, and Tom Tiffany, the congressman and Republican nominee for Wisconsin governor, are some of the House Republicans – seen as vulnerable in their respective races – who will also not attend the GOP convention in Dallas.
Earlier, Trump snapped at an ABC News reporter who asked about the absences.
“We have room for the ones that have a close race, if they’re slightly behind or slightly ahead or tied,” the president said. “But we don’t have room for people that are 35 points up and don’t need to be there … Every politician that we’ve wanted to be there is there.”
David Smith
Reporting from Dallas
The midterm convention is under way. Each speaker stands at a lectern on a shiny black stage with big blue star and gold trim. There are four US national flags and five giant video screens behind them. Earlier today, the screens showed dark, spooky images of Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Tim Walz.
The red-carpeted convention floor looks full and has the familiar vertical signs with the names of individual states, even though state delegates have not been elected this time. There is also a flavour of a Donald Trump campaign rally: the so-called “Front row Joes” are here, as are the “Trump Tribe of Texas” with “Lady Liberty” (a woman dressed in a Statue of Liberty costume).
Blake Marnell, wearing his customary brick patterned suit and tie and red “Make America great again” cap, told me: “There’s probably no administration in history that you can look at two years in and say we got everything we wanted but I’m overall extremely happy. My number one issue of course is the border. There are a lot of other issues that are important, but I think that most of those are downstream from illegal immigration.”
But the regular seating at the American Airlines Center is a different story: some sections are quite full, others have lots of empty seats (some occupied only by Stars and Stripes signs). The “nosebleeds” at the top seem completely unfilled so far. Of course, it’s still early days: Trump and other big name speakers are yet to appear. The stadium may well be much nearer capacity when they do.
Chris Daniel, 44, from Houston, Texas, who has been a delegate to every Republican convention since 2004, said: “It feels different only because this is the midterms and we haven’t seen anything remotely like this since the 1800s. In this case, it is to rally the troops and get everyone on the same page so that we move forward towards November.”
Trump merchandise is on sale in the square outside. It includes “Trump 2028” baseball caps.
Adam Gabbatt
Reporting from Dallas
At the Republican convention, several people – not me – are already on the booze.
Miller Lite appears to be the beer of choice. Others have been taking advantage of free food provided by Steak n’ Shake, a burger company which has aligned itself with Robert F Kennedy’s idiosyncratic healthcare agenda. Steak n’ Shake has a van here with an inflatable box of fries which declare that its fries are “100% beef tallow” and do not contain seed oils. On a chalkboard on the side of the van someone has written “Eat mor bef tallow”.
There are always interesting outfits at Republican conventions, and this year’s theme seems to be “sequins”. Among those sporting the style was Denise Hopkins, a keen Trump supporter from Louisiana who had an interesting idea about who should be the Republican nominee in 2028.
“I would like President Trump. I think he’s doing a great job. I know he’s got family and grandkids, and he’s done so much for us, but if he would like to,” she said.
The back of Hopkins’ jacket spelled out “Team Jesus” in sequins. It had a biblical verse at the bottom, but some of the sequins had fallen off, rendering it unreadable.
David Smith
Reporting from Dallas
Ray Washburne, co-chair of the Republican midterm convention, has acknowledged that Donald Trump will be “front and center” of the event and denied the US president will be a liability for the party’s candidates.
“Absolutely, he’s an asset – just look at the turnouts he gets,” Washburne told a roundtable at Bloomberg News in Dallas. “The ratings for listening to him speak will be fantastic because people want to hear what he’s got to say and he’s gonna set the tone for the rest of this fall. People are gonna look at that and his tone towards people like Ken Paxton and others to get the enthusiasm behind their campaigns.”
Washburne said the two main contenders to host Republicans’ first midterm convention had been Dallas and Las Vegas. After Dallas got the nod in mid-June, the host committee raised $45m in three weeks as it raced to meet the September deadline. He expects an attendance of 18,000 to 20,000 each night in the American Airlines Center but is not aware of how many members of Congress will be among them. More than 1,600 reporters have been credentialed.
Washburne, chair of the gas company Sunoco and vice-chair of Gillon Capital, said the idea of a midterm convention appealed to Trump. “He’s an entertainer. He obviously loves big, big events and things and his career has been built around that. I think when the idea was broached to him about doing it he thought about it for a while and was like, that makes a lot of sense to do it because it’s going to get a lot of attention, we can showcase people we need to showcase, and make the argument for another two years of Republican-held House and Senate to go along with the administration’s goals to get things done.”
The co-chair added:
I think once that was really talked through this spring, it was realised, yeah, let’s do something. I don’t think the Democrats – who would they put up? AOC, Bernie Sanders, Mamdani. They’re going to run that lineup in front of the American people? We wish they would: they’d run that lineup versus our lineup, that would really show a true contrast. Democrats could easily have done one as well but I don’t think they want to show what they’ve got versus what we have on at prime time.”
Similarly, as part of Democrats’ counter-programming to the Republican convention, James Talarico held a food drive in Dallas, where his campaign said the event saw more than 20,000 pounds of groceries collected.
The Democratic nominee for US Senate in Texas is facing the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, in one of the most closely watched contests of this midterm cycle. Talarico called this week’s Republican convention a “billionaire’s ball”.
“I think there is a bipartisan backlash growing across the state to the extremism and the corruption that we’re seeing in our government,” Talarico, a state lawmaker, told CBS News at today’s food drive. “Everywhere I go across Texas, big cities, small towns, red areas, blue areas, everyone is struggling to survive in this economy.”
Talarico added that his “day one” policies include repealing the Trump administration’s “crazy tariffs”, suspending the federal gas tax and the federal diesel tax, and bringing the war with Iran to an end.
