HARRISBURG (TNS) — Democratic U.S. Sen. John Fetterman has a reputation for being crass, and he channeled that energy Wednesday while taking shots at Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance.
A profanity-laced official press release from Fetterman’s campaign mocked Vance, Fetterman’s Senate colleague from Ohio.
The release, titled “For Unfortunate Planning Purposes,” claimed that Vance would lie during a campaign appearance Wednesday in Erie.
It derides the GOP senator for a viral video of an awkward account Vance had while ordering donuts in Georgia and calls him a “Silicon Valley type,” a thinly veiled attempt to tie Vance to some of his biggest donors in the tech industry.
“Silicon Valley type, JD ‘I can’t order donuts’ Vance, will hold a campaign event in Erie,” reads the release. “At the event, he plans to continue to lie to Pennsylvanians and (probably) awkwardly introduce himself to more voters.”
Fetterman’s release then dropped the f-word in claiming that Erie voters don’t know who Vance is.
The Democratic senator from Braddock pointed to other inflammatory statements Vance has made over the years, such as his broadside calling Vice President Kamala Harris and other prominent Democrats “childless cat ladies” and a 2014 text to a friend that read, “I hate the police.”
The Trump-Vance campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Charlie Hills, a Fetterman spokesman, said the press release was written in the senator’s “authentic voice.”
Fetterman has long been known for using obscenities and breaking with norms in his political rise, whether through his language, his attire or his appearance.
A staunch ally of President Joe Biden, Fetterman used the f-word multiple times on the social media platform X this June when defending Biden’s decision to remain in the presidential race.
Biden eventually dropped out, and Fetterman has since endorsed Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Fetterman used the f-word in 2021 on X when saying abortion rights of Roe V. Wade should be maintained.
Hills said Fetterman is especially fired up because he has an affinity for Erie. Fetterman has repeatedly pointed out the importance of Erie County in winning statewide elections in Pennsylvania, and he won the county during his Senate race in 2022.
Not everyone was so forgiving of Fetterman’s voice.
Republican Allegheny County Councilman Sam DeMarco is a Marine veteran and the chair of the county’s Republican committee. He said that foul language does not belong in politics, adding that “barracks language” should be kept in the barracks.
“We expect politics to be robust and its language candid. But voters are entitled to candor that does not lapse into vulgarity that betrays both a lack of manners and a poverty of imagination,” DeMarco said.
Neither Vance nor former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, might pass DeMarco’s smell test. Both have used vulgarity.
During his speech in Erie, Vance said that Harris “can go to hell” over the Biden-Harris administration’s role in the controversial withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Afghanistan in 2021.
Trump has used the f-bomb over the years, including at a campaign rally in Alaska in 2022 and on a radio show in 2020 when discussing Iran.
Cursing has been on the rise in the political realm, particularly after Trump entered politics in 2016.
An analysis from Washington, D.C.-based public affairs software platform Quorum found members of Congress have increased the use of the f-word on social media from zero instances in 2015 to 205 in 2023. The word “hell” was posted 79 times on social media by lawmakers in 2015, and that has increased to 1095 in 2023.
