BS BULLETIN:

• A blistering Wall Street Journal investigation portrays Sen. John Fetterman as frequently avoiding constituent meetings and other routine Senate responsibilities.
• Pennsylvania Democrats immediately pounced, with Reps. Brendan Boyle and Chris Deluzio delivering extraordinarily harsh criticism of their fellow Democrat.
• But some on the right are rallying around Fetterman, questioning whether the report amounts to political payback against a Democrat who has repeatedly broken with his party.

Sen. John Fetterman has spent the past few years doing something few Democrats expected when Pennsylvania sent him to Washington: making friends on the right.

Now, as a “bombshell” report raises serious questions about how he has performed the less glamorous parts of his Senate job, some of those unlikely admirers are wondering whether Fetterman’s independence has finally come back to bite him.

The Wall Street Journal published a lengthy investigation Thursday portraying Fetterman as frequently uninterested in constituent meetings, committee work and other ordinary responsibilities of a senator.

The report is substantial. It is based on interviews with more than a dozen former staffers and lawmakers, along with text messages and internal records.

And some of its allegations are difficult to ignore.

Three paralyzed military veterans from rural Pennsylvania traveled to Washington in June for a scheduled meeting with Fetterman about legislation affecting their care.

According to the Journal, Fetterman canceled after telling staff he might have eaten something bad and wasn’t feeling well.

Less than an hour later, the newspaper reported, Fetterman arrived at his office and prepared for an appearance on Fox News.

The Journal also reported that when officials from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia requested a meeting to discuss vaccines and Medicaid, Fetterman dismissed their motives in a message to an aide, saying he believed they wanted free trips to Washington.

The report also describes Fetterman missing numerous committee hearings and resisting other meetings and events.

Then the knives came out.

And some of the sharpest belonged to fellow Pennsylvania Democrats.

Rep. Brendan Boyle called Fetterman a “disgrace” and a “lazy trust fund baby,” while Rep. Chris Deluzio described the reported conduct as “pathetic” and accused the senator of lacking a sense of duty. Both men have been discussed as potential 2028 challengers to Fetterman.

Gun-control activist Shannon Watts described a 2024 meeting with Fetterman as “bonkers.”

Mehdi Hasan, who supported Fetterman in 2022 and defended him following his stroke, called the revelations “beyond parody.”

The political context, however, is hard to miss.

Fetterman has increasingly broken with the Democratic left, become one of Washington’s most outspoken supporters of Israel and made frequent appearances on Fox News. His standing among Pennsylvania Democrats has fallen while his popularity among Republicans has increased; a recent Inquirer/New York Times/Siena poll cited by the Philadelphia Inquirer found his favorability among Republicans had actually risen above that of Republican Sen. Dave McCormick.

That has produced an unusual counterreaction to the Journal investigation.

Some conservatives and other Fetterman defenders argued that the senator is now being targeted precisely because he refuses to march in lockstep with his party.

American Wire News collected reactions calling the Journal investigation a “hit piece” and suggesting Fetterman’s willingness to criticize Democrats and stake out independent positions had made him a target.

That doesn’t answer the factual allegations in the Journal’s reporting.

Canceling on paralyzed veterans, blowing off constituents and skipping committee work are legitimate questions for any senator, regardless of party.

But the speed with which Fetterman’s Democratic enemies seized on the report adds another dimension to the story.

Fetterman isn’t merely facing questions about how he does his job.

He’s facing them at the same moment Pennsylvania Democrats are openly discussing who might replace him in 2028 — and after several years in which one of the Democratic Party’s most recognizable progressives became one of its most unpredictable dissenters.

That makes Friday’s spectacle particularly unusual: Democrats are lining up to unload on John Fetterman.

And some of the people coming to his defense are the Republicans and conservatives nobody expected him to befriend in the first place.

DBS WIRE SOURCES:

• Mediaite — Critics stunned by revelations in WSJ Fetterman report
• The Wall Street Journal — Behind closed doors, John Fetterman shows little interest in the work of a senator
• Mediaite — Five wildest details from the Wall Street Journal’s Fetterman report
• Mediaite — Fetterman reportedly ditched meeting with paralyzed vets to do Fox News hit
• Washington Examiner — Fetterman called ‘lazy trust fund baby’ after report claims he blew off responsibilities