Fetterman met with Kash Patel and denied that he would use the FBI to go after his opponents

John Fetterman (D-PA) is perhaps the most open-minded Democratic senator with regards to Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees, especially those most resisted by his colleagues. In fact, he has met with Pete Hegseth as well as endorsed Marco Rubio and Elise Stefanik in their respective nominations. His latest show of openness was a meeting with Kash Patel, the president-elect's pick to head the FBI.

The Pennsylvania senator met behind closed doors with Patel, a 44-year-old lawyer who worked at the Justice Department during the Obama administration and then at the Defense Department in the first Trump administration.

Fetterman shared his experience with Patel in a recent interview with Jonathan Karl for ABC's "This Week."

The reporter specifically asked him about whether Trump's nominee would go after his political rivals, to which the senator responded as follows, "So I’m not going to go into detail, but he absolutely, — that’s never going to happen." When asked by Karl about earlier comments by Patel, Fetterman reiterated that Patel made it clear to him that he would not pursue a path of revenge if confirmed. "That’s not it … that’s what he claims," he continued.

In turn, the Democrat said he used the meeting to become more familiar with Patel's life story. "I found out his family’s origin story and immigration… I learned things about him. I never knew he was a public defender," he noted.

On his reception of Trump's nominees in general, the senator maintained that he will keep an open mind and not rule anyone out beforehand. "There is going to be some [nominees] that I will vote yes, and there’s some, maybe that I’ll vote no. But nobody can accuse me of just saying I had a closed mind, or I just said no because Trump picked this person, or whatever," he added.

Fetterman's reflection on Trump's victory in Pennsylvania

In the same interview with ABC, the senator was asked about Trump's win in his state. On the night of November 5, the Republican beat Kamala Harris by 1.7 percentage points, equaling 120,266 votes. Pennsylvania was one of eight that Trump managed to win back from the 2020 election.

Contrary to what many Democrats have expressed, Fetterman asserted that Trump voters are not fascists, commenting that many jumped party lines to vote for him.

"A lot of Democrats, especially in my state that I know and I happen to love people that [voted] for Trump and they are not fascists. (...) I think people are going to decide who is the candidate that's going to protect and project my version of the American way of life. And that's what happened," he stated.