As chaos within the Republican ranks of the GOP-controlled U.S. House pushes the federal government closer to a shutdown, Democratic Sen. John Fetterman has offered the opposition a sartorial olive branch.
On Wednesday, Fetterman, who has been the target of Republican attacks over his insistence on wearing shorts and hoodies in Congress rather than suits, made a unique proposal.
“If those jagoffs in the House stop trying to shut our government down, and fully support Ukraine, then I will save democracy by wearing a suit on the Senate floor next week,” Fetterman said in a statement.
Jagoffs, for those not from Western Pennsylvania, is a slang word for jerks (or worse).
Fetterman’s offer comes amid a barrage of Republican criticism over a change in the Senate dress code seemingly to accommodate his disdain for suits, criticism that he has more than happily responded to via social media.
Former U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, an Allegheny County Democrat, shared his support for Fetterman via Twitter/X on Tuesday and took a shot at House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, a McCarthy critic, in the process.
“I would have worn a top hat and tails onto the House floor every day if it made Kevin McCarthy and Matt Gaetz any better at their jobs, but it would not have,” Lamb wrote. “The fixation on Sen. Fetterman is purely a distraction from yet another looming, disastrous, pointless shutdown.”
