Messages obtained by New York Magazine show the Democrat mocking free healthcare, dismissing the Epstein files as a “nothing burger,” and calling Democrats hypocritical for their outrage at the killing of nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Fetterman has been a thorn in his party’s side on a host of issues.
In January, according to the report, Fetterman sent staffers an article about how annual healthcare costs for a typical working American family are nearly $4,000.
“How should it cost? Free?” he wrote. “I don’t understand what affordability it is.”
Also in January, as the Trump administration was dragging its heels about releasing the Epstein files, Fetterman messaged a staffer: “Epstein was a nothing burger. Worst pics I’ve seen were from Clinton lol.”
Fetterman has been sounding more like a Republican, staffers say.
Fetterman has been sounding more like a Republican, staffers say.
Then, after federal agents repeatedly shot Pretti in the back during anti-ICE protests, Fetterman complained that Democrats shouldn’t be taking his side because they had objected when Kyle Rittenhouse “brought a gun to a protest,” as Fetterman characterized it.
“Kyle Rittenhouse brought a gun to a protest,” Fetterman, 56, texted a staffer. “He was roundly condemned for that. Why are now democrats defending the nurse it was legal to carry. Both legal weapons. Square that.”
Unlike Pretti, though, Rittenhouse actually fired his gun. He shot three men—two fatally—during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020 after the shooting of Jacob Blake by a police officer. Rittenhouse was charged with two counts of homicide and one count of attempted homicide, among other charges. He was found not guilty.
Pretti’s killing, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office determined, was a homicide.
Fetterman’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
