Hello and welcome back to The Best & The Brightest. I’m Leigh Ann Caldwell, looking forward to my conversation with Hawaii Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz tomorrow morning at the latest installment of Puck’s Power Breakfast at The Hay-Adams. There’s a lot to discuss, including how Democrats are responding to Trump’s deployment of military forces to Los Angeles; the withering of the State Department, which my partner Julia Ioffe continues to document brilliantly (here and here, for example); and, of course, the state of the Democratic Party. If you can’t make it, we’ll catch you next time. Plus you’ll soon be able to listen to our conversation on Puck’s The Powers That Be daily podcast, and read an excerpt in this column tomorrow. But, as you know, there’s no substitute for being in the room. 🚨 By the way, some of you are still only receiving the preview version of this email, which means you’re missing all of the scoops, insight, analysis, and jokes that make Puck both essential and beloved. Once you subscribe, you’ll be officially on the inside, and become a much more impressive and interesting dinner date. Today, I’m taking a look at Sen. John Fetterman’s political future. A recent dinner that he enjoyed with MAGA O.G. Steve Bannon and Breitbart Washington bureau chief Matthew Boyle at Butterworth’s has set off alarms among Democrats—causing some to ponder whether Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro can remove him from his Senate seat and name a replacement. All that, and much more on the Republican soft-power campaign to woo Fetterman to their side, below. But first…

The resistance is televised: California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s address last night—in which he likened Trump’s actions in the state to those of authoritarian regimes, accused him of “perpetuating a unified assault on American traditions,” and warned it “clearly will not end” in California—is being well received by Democrats, one of whom texted me this morning to declare the speech “not half-bad.” Having deployed the National Guard and federal troops to the state, Trump has threatened a similar response to protests in other cities, and has warned against protests during his costly military parade this weekend in Washington, D.C.Newsom, of course, is considering a 2028 presidential bid, and sometimes his transparent thirst for higher office gets the side-eye from Democrats. It was not well received in the party when Newsom hosted Charlie Kirk (or Bannon) on his new podcast, nor when he agreed with Republicans against trans women playing in female sports. But last night, he said what Democrats have been trying to articulate. And for now, with California the central front in Democrats’ battle with Trump, Newsom is the party’s lead messenger from the field.
Mitch vs. Pete: Speaking of resistance, former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell had his day with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who testified before the Appropriations Committee today. McConnell, who didn’t vote to confirm Hegseth, and refused to even meet with him ahead of time, asked the SecDef whether he wanted Ukraine or Russia to win their war. (Hegseth didn’t answer the question, saying that Trump wants peace.)He also got Hegseth to admit that Chinese President Xi Jinping would prefer that Russia win—right before the Defense secretary pivoted to blaming the Biden administration for the current morass. “Beating up the past is not a plan for going forward to the future,” McConnell chided him.

Now for the main event…

The Invisible Fetterman

The arc of the formerly progressive senator’s career has bent more and more toward the right, and away from his own party. Would he actually jump ship?

Leigh Ann Caldwell

Senator John Fetterman is a serial instigator of mini-freakouts in Democratic circles—over his pro-Israel stance, his condemnation of his own party’s reaction to President Trump’s troop deployment in L.A., and now his chosen dinner companions. This week, as first reported by Politico, the Pennsylvania iconoclast dined with Steve Bannon and Breitbart’s Matthew Boyle at Butterworth’s, the Peach Pit of the D.C. MAGA establishment—a gastronomic decision that set the phones of Democratic aides ablaze with texts wondering what it all meant, and whether Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro could remove and replace him for failing to fulfill his job duties. (Absenteeism has also been a problem for the senator, who has suffered from a stroke and serious depression, though there’s no indication that Shapiro would deploy that option.) As for what the trio discussed at dinner… Bannon didn’t respond to my requests for comment, and Fetterman feigned ignorance. “I’m not sure what you’re referring to,” he said when I asked him about it. But the episode has revived chatter that Fetterman is considering switching parties, alarming his (still) fellow Dems in the Senate. “Ohhh, that’s not good,” one senator told me about the dinner. “Yikes,” said another. After all, even former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, the Democratic-turned-independent senator who grew frustrated with the Democrats and vice versa, refused to meet with Bannon and Boyle personally. (His staff did, however.) The trajectory of Fetterman’s Senate career so far, in fact, has seemed to bend away from his own party, with which he’s grown disengaged, and toward Republicans, who have warmed to the guy. And all of this is taking place against a backdrop of personal tumult, highlighted by the explosive, recent New York magazine story questioning his mental well-being and functionality. The Washington Post reported that Fetterman opted out of the Senate Dems’ group chat, and has stopped attending the party’s weekly lunches. Meanwhile, his staff turnover is one of the highest in the chamber, and he misses committee hearings and votes. According to the Times, he has dismissed these frustrations as attempts to “weaponize” his depression. Meanwhile, Republican senators who once attacked Fetterman for not being up to his job—after he continued to campaign following his stroke, and fought to change Senate rules to allow him onto the floor in his trademark shorts and hoodie—are now defending him against unflattering coverage. His Republican counterpart from Pennsylvania, David McCormick, condemned the recent articles about his health as “disgraceful smears.” In the Capitol hallways, Trump ally Sen. Eric Schmitt backslaps him hello, and other Republicans make it a point to greet him, while Democrats mostly just walk on by. Still, there’s no official effort by G.O.P. leadership to convert Fetterman. But a Republican can dream. G.O.P. strategist and former Trump campaign advisor David Urban recently made the switch-parties pitch directly to Fetterman, I’m told. Fetterman laughed it off. Urban then suggested that he become an independent, which Fetterman told him he also wouldn’t do.

Homeless in the Chamber

Democrats don’t really think he will leave the party. Fetterman is not a key swing vote, like Manchin was. He also doesn’t seem to be interested in scaling the committee or ranks, which is the kind of thing potential party-switchers often receive as a reward. On the other hand, conversions usually come as a surprise and can happen when people least expect it. Back in 2001, Democratic Whip Harry Reid secretly met with Republican Senator Jim Jeffords for weeks before persuading him to switch parties, and flip control of the Senate to the Democrats. When Republican Arlen Specter left the G.O.P. in 2009, helping to give Democrats a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority, Reid acknowledged that he and Spector had discussed his role in the Senate “over many years.” It still came as a shock to Specter’s colleagues. Democratic senators, sensitive to his mental health concerns and various quirks, have to tread carefully with Fetterman. He hasn’t really done anything to jeopardize the party’s position, after all. He mostly votes with Democrats—although his support for the Laken Riley Act annoyed them—and, notably, he hasn’t missed any votes where the party needed him. He’s voted with Republicans to confirm a couple of Trump’s nominees, but given their 53-seat majority, he’s never been the deciding vote. “It’s a delicate balance,” said one Democratic senator. Meanwhile, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has been careful to be tolerant and supportive, presumably biding time until Fetterman’s 2028 reelection campaign, when the Pennsylvania senator will surely be challenged in a primary. “It will be hilarious when Conor Lamb primaries him from the left,” one Democratic operative said of the former centrist Pittsburgh-area congressman, who lost to the more liberal Fetterman in the 2022 Senate primary. “John Fetterman will lose in the primary. He is a lame duck.”

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