John Fetterman joins Truth Social and says a pardon is 'appropriate' for Trump's Manhattan hush money case

Fallon Roth, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Dec 11, 2024

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Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) joined Truth Social, President-elect Donald Trump's social media platform, on Tuesday and his first order of business on the site was to call for a pardon for Trump in his New York hush money case.

"The Trump hush money and Hunter Biden cases were both b-, and pardons are appropriate," Fetterman said in his first Truth Social post Tuesday evening.

Fetterman's participation on the platform is another example of the junior senator's signature bluntness and tendency to stray from party lines, offering rare glimmers of bipartisanship in Washington, D.C. Since Election Day, Fetterman has expressed his support for some of Trump's picks for the incoming administration and said he admired billionaire Elon Musk, a staunch Trump ally.

Truth Social was launched in early 2022 after Trump's ban from several mainstream platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The platform is home to the social media presences of various conservative public officials and figures.

A spokesperson for Fetterman did not return a request for comment Wednesday.

"Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division," Fetterman added in the Truth Social post, in response to a headline from an MSNBC story on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's response to Trump's motion to dismiss the hush money case. In May, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to cover up a scheme connected to the 2016 presidential election.

Along with Truth Social, Fetterman made a personal account on Bluesky — which many have recently joined as an alternative to Musk's X after his role in Trump's campaign — in an effort of "meeting folks where they are," he said Tuesday. Fetterman had created a professional account on Bluesky in November.

His embrace of these platforms come as the senator comes despite a frustration with social media platforms Wednesday, particularly in relation to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the subsequent arrest of suspect Luigi Mangione in Pennsylvania.

"He's the a— that's going to die in prison. Congratulations if you want to celebrate that," Fetterman said, in part, Wednesday, according to NBC News. "A sewer is going to sewer. That's what social media is about this. And I don't know why the media wants to turn that into a story, just with these trolls saying these kinds of things anonymously like that. I don't know why that's news. Remember, he has two children that are going to grow up without their father... It's vile."

He expressed a similar sentiment earlier in the month, writing in a Dec. 7 post on X that, "No shortage of s— takes on the 2024 election or on this assassination. The public execution of an innocent man and father of two is indefensible, not "inevitable." Condoning and cheering this on says more about YOU than the situation of health insurance."

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