Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman criticized members of his party who've called for replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, remarking how his own "difficult" debate performance didn't stop him from winning his own race against television personality and notable quack Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Fetterman, in fact, doubled down, telling Fox News anchor Shannon Bream that the idea of abandoning Biden is "the dumbest s**t I’ve ever heard" and noted that such a move would ultimately benefit former President Donald Trump, Biden's Republican opponent.
He said:
“That whole abandon Biden thing, that’s the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard. I mean, if you are more inclined to vote for a Democrat or be a Democrat, if you’re willing to walk away from Joe Biden, you’re, by defecting, helping Trump.”
He noted that he'd previously been criticized for fumbling while speaking during debates with Oz, the result of a stroke he suffered while campaigning for office:
“I had a difficult debate, and yet we still managed to go on to win. Now, everybody was calling that the end of my career, that was the end of this race and everyone was predicting that I was going to lose actually by 2 points or more. And I smoked Oz by 5 points. And that’s what I’m saying. It’s like, one debate is not a career.”
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Many appreciated his response.
On the same day Fetterman dismissed calls to replace Biden, historian Allan Lichtman, a professor at American University renowned for accurately predicting nine out of the last ten presidential elections, warned that replacing Biden could jeopardize the Democrats' chances in the 2024 election.
Lichtman, who has accurately forecast nearly every election outcome over the past fifty years except for the 2000 race, utilizes a system of 13 historical factors or "keys."
This model incorporates four political factors, seven performance-related elements, and two aspects of a candidate's personality. According to Lichtman, if the incumbent party loses six of these "keys," they are likely to lose the presidency.
The keys assess factors such as whether a candidate is the sitting president, the economic conditions, and the presence of third-party candidates.
Lichtman emphasized that debate performance is not included in these determinants, referring to these criticisms as "foolhardy nonsense."
