Lt. Gov. John Fetterman fashions himself as a tough guy, a bare-knuckled fighter for the causes he supports, a straight-talker, a contrarian among politicos who prefer measured approaches to controversial issues.
But Pennsylvania’s second-in-command — the politician who days ago declared his run for U.S. senator — is displaying a 6-foot-8-inch profile in sheepishness that belies his rugged stature, both physical and stylistic.
Mr. Fetterman, who hasn’t been shy about speaking his mind and who has been uncommonly accessible to the media for years, is evidencing a clear reluctance to engage publicly about a scandal from his past.
Some eight years ago, when he was serving as mayor of Braddock, he chased down a Black man and held the man at gunpoint because he had heard shots fired in proximity to Mr. Fetterman’s home and he had seen a man running. So, the mayor pursued the man in his pickup truck, using a shotgun to detain him until police arrived.
As it turns out, the Black man was an unarmed jogger. Mr. Fetterman has said he had no idea the man was Black.
The 2013 incident has been raised now, at a moment in history when society is reckoning with longtime patterns of unfair and unwarranted police action against Black people.
Mr. Fetterman’s incident from his past, when juxtaposed with his vocal cries for better police training, strikes an appearance of hypocrisy. It’s an appearance, even if unwarranted, that his political enemies are licking their chops over.
And now, in this current context of racial reckoning and his run for higher office, he is all but silent. He has brushed off one-on-one interviews with state and national media outlets, opting instead to post a statement online. In response to an interview request from The New York Times last week, his election committee released a written and videoed statement. But a journalist can’t question a video.
Why the dodge?
It would seem contraindicated, given Mr. Fetterman’s longtime full-throated commitment to good community policing and his seemingly genuine care for underrepresented people. He wears on his arm — not his sleeve, mind you — tattoos of the dates that nine people were murdered in Braddock.
There’s no doubt Mr. Fetterman’s opponents in his nascent Senate campaign are trying to stir trouble by recirculating this 2013 incident. It’s not the first time Mr. Fetterman’s rivals have used this ploy. But, as the lieutenant governor’s already big profile continues to grow, he must realize that he undercuts his stature when he tries to duck the press.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS
