Fetterman caves to Trump on PA judge after moaning he’s been burned by president

Sen. John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat known for causing the party numerous headaches, caved to President Donald Trump, per Punchbowl News, giving him a pass that no other Senate Democrat has during his second term.

On Friday morning, Punchbowl reported that Fetterman — sometimes hailed as "Trump's favorite Democrat" for his often right-leaning stances and votes — would be allowing one of the president's federal judicial nominees in Pennsylvania, "waiving" his right to refuse a "blue slip." As the report noted, this is "the first time in Trump’s second term that a Senate Democrat has turned in a blue slip for one of Trump’s judicial picks."

A congressional tradition dating back over a century, senators from each state hold the right to refuse to give their support to a president's judicial nominee in their home state, with the act of giving their support referred to as giving them their "blue slip." Refusing to give the slip, typically, results in the nominee getting blocked outright, or at least delayed significantly.

Both of a state's senators must give a judicial nominee their blue slip in order for their nomination to progress. As Pennsylvania's other senator, David McCormick, is a Republican, only Fetterman was likely to offer any pushback at all in the process. Critics of Trump have pushed Democrats to be unyielding in the blue slip refusal under Trump's second term, given that these judges will go on to serve lifetime appointments.

Trump previously railed against the blue slip process, but Senate Republicans offered a rare rebuke and defended it.

"The move is already setting off yet another battle between Fetterman and his numerous critics on the left, who demand unyielding opposition to Trump, particularly on lifetime appointments to the federal bench," Punchbowl reported.

It continued: "This is also a new test for Senate Democrats. Trump only recently nominated a pair of judges for federal district courts in states with one or two Democratic senators. Trump tapped Antonio Pozos for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Michael Martin for the Eastern District of Michigan. Fetterman turned in his blue slip for Pozos to allow the nomination process to move forward, according to a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Democrat. Michigan’s two Democratic senators haven’t turned in their blue slips for Martin."

Demand Justice, a "key liberal group," is now prepping a major ad campaign to attack Fetterman for his approval of Pozos' nomination, and threatening similar attacks against any Democrat who does the same going forward.

“These are not normal times, and any senator who thinks that this is standard operating procedure and that any of these nominations are normal course of operations is deluding themselves,” Demand Justice President Josh Orton told Punchbowl.