Pennsylvania Sens. Dave McCormick, a big ally of President Donald Trump, and John Fetterman are set to host their first joint public event in Pittsburgh this Saturday, but not everyone is happy with Fetterman’s bipartisan support for his Republican colleagues’ new book — especially Democrats.
An activist group, Mondays Without McCormick Pittsburgh, is organizing a protest in collaboration with Indivisible Pittsburgh, urging both senators to address their constituents’ concerns by hosting a town hall. In a related development, former Dem Rep. Conor Lamb, who challenged Fetterman in the 2022 Democratic primary, criticized the senator in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer, questioning where Fetterman has been during President Donald Trump’s second term.
“And that’s John Fetterman’s job. He should be not only speaking out, he should be listening to people, and instead, it sounds like he’s going to be listening to Dave McCormick and cheering on Dave McCormick’s book signing,” Lamb said. While McCormick regularly shares his weekly meetings with constituents on social media, it has been over two months since Fetterman last held a public event in Pennsylvania. The anticipated protests come amid a broader wave of town hall tensions unfolding across the United States.
Fetterman, the only Democratic senator to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago before his inauguration, has remained a staunch supporter of Israel and co-sponsored the Laken Riley Act, which empowers ICE to detain undocumented immigrants who commit crimes in the United States. While McCormick has applauded Fetterman’s bipartisan approach, many Democrats have expressed discontent with his decision to deviate from party lines.
“He’s been saying the same thing about Democrats now for six months, we get it,” Lamb told the Inquirer. “Democrats know we have some issues, but he has a job to do… I know that trashing the Democratic Party gets him a lot of attention, but he wasn’t put in office to be a political commentator. He was sent to office to get results.”
At the Pittsburgh book tour event, the Pennsylvania senators will engage in a conversation alongside their wives—Gisele Barreto Fetterman and Dina Powell McCormick, the latter of whom served as a national security advisor during Trump’s first term. “Instead of holding town halls, they are hawking a book at a paid event at City Winery. Join us to tell them NO! NO to dismantling the Department of Education. NO to defunding SNAP and programs that feed our kids. NO to cuts to NIH which supports research for our kids and ALL of us. And NO to attacks on our democracy – the legacy we will leave our kids,” the Facebook event invite reads.
The McCormicks co-wrote their new book about mentorship, “WHO BELIEVED IN YOU?,” and the book tour is billed as a discussion of transformative mentorship “from some of the most successful leaders in the country.” Protesters in Pittsburgh have mocked the “paid book event,” originally scheduled at City Winery and now moved to a venue yet to be announced. Despite the change, they remain undeterred, vowing to gather in the Strip District.
