Sen. John Fetterman, (D-Pa.) has been attracting quite a bit of attention lately—and not just for his inability to speak coherently. His signature style of wearing a sweatshirt and baggy shorts, even after becoming a U.S. senator, has come under fire recently, particularly after a recent press conference on debt ceiling negotiations, when he wore a white Carhartt sweatshirt and black shorts, surrounded by his fellow senators who wore suits.
Despite the expectation that senators dress formally, Fetterman has not shown any intention of changing his style, and the Associated Press curiously chose to support his choice, arguing that Fetterman’s homeless look is “redefining fashion in the stuffy Senate.”
It was a bizarre take, but one that makes perfect sense in light of a new undercover video featuring an assistant to Fetterman, who told an undercover reporter that the senator’s office maintains a list of “puppet journalists.” These journalists are purportedly selected because Fetterman’s office knows they will cover the campaign’s approved narrative.
The video, released by James O’Keefe’s new organization, O’Keefe Media Group, shows Fetterman’s special assistant Luke Borwegan revealing which journalists will push the narrative they want to push.
“I have to f—ing strong-arm these journalists, and that’s not my job, but there’s so many reporters,” Borwegan says in the video. “We shouldn’t just be telling them to f— off. If they’re reporters we like, it’s good to have a good relationship with them. We have — our press operations is like a f—ing work of art, the way that… reporters, we can tell them to go f— themselves, and they can’t do anything, because they need us more than we need them, because everybody wants a f—ing story about John Fetterman and we only give it to certain people.”
“I only pick reporters who we know will paint the narrative the way we want,” Borwegan continued. “So it’s like, when John checks himself in for depression, we tell one reporter in particular, because they will hit the facts that we want them to.”
Want a peek into the #RealJohnFetterman who would overturn the Second Amendment?
Watch this 👇pic.twitter.com/G8HOnpHKAI pic.twitter.com/8mZi880RJR
— O’Keefe Media Group (@OKeefeMedia) May 23, 2023
One journalist on the list was MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, who was granted an interview even though, as Borwegan said, he “sucks.” He also mentioned that a later interview with “Pod Save America,” which is hosted by former Obama aides, went better because they covered the narrative Fetterman’s office wanted.
“They’re just like puppets, though,” Borwegan admitted.
He also suggested that Fetterman would likely support overturning the Second Amendment and preferred a scenario where no American owns a gun.
Related: How Long Does the Media Think It Can Cover for Fetterman’s Cognitive Impairment?
This revelation comes a week after Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein tweeted about Fetterman’s “interrogation” during a Senate hearing using a cleaned-up quote that did not accurately reflect Fetterman’s words, in an apparent attempt to make him appear more coherent than he actually is. Stein was swiftly mocked for posting the fake quote, and he went on to blame Fetterman’s office for providing him with it. Was Stein on their list of “puppet” journalists? It wouldn’t surprise me.