‘The View’ Co-Host Berates John Fetterman Over Shutdown Vote—But He’s Having None Of It

Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman fired back at “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin on Tuesday as she attempted to shame him for voting to reopen the government.

Several Democrats and pundits, including Hostin, expressed outrage at the eight Democrats who voted to reopen the government without securing extensions of Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies. Fetterman fired back at Hostin on ‘The View” after she cited Greene in an attempt to blame Republicans for the shutdown, stating that she is the “last person” he would take political advice from.

“Poll after poll found more Americans on both sides of the aisle blaming Republicans. Even Marjorie Taylor Greene blamed the GOP,” Hostin began. “As you mentioned, Democrats had big wins last week, so you had momentum. Why give in now? Why bring a butter knife to a gunfight? Are you willing to gamble that the GOP will negotiate on health care in good faith once the government reopens? Because if that gamble is wrong, half a million Pennsylvanians that you represent, their health care costs will skyrocket if you are wrong. And I believe you are wrong.” 

“Well, first of all, you know, MTG is quite literally the last person in America that I’m going to take advice or to get their kinds of my leadership and values from,” Fetterman said. “And now if Democrats are celebrating crazy pants like that, then that’s on them. And I don’t need a lecture. I don’t need a lecture from whether it’s Bernie or the governor in California, because they are representing very deep blue, blue kinds of populations. And a lot of those things were part of the extreme.”

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Fetterman argued that his potential reelection bid is not a reason to keep the government shutdown given that millions of Americans will continue to struggle financially if the government is not reopened.

“And I would like to, rather than cite MTG, I’m going to cite one of the new governor elects, saying that my election is not a green light to continue the shutdown, because I promise you this isn’t a political game,” Fetterman continued. “It is viewed by that by many of us. But the reality is 42 million Americans now not sure where their next meal is going to come from.”

“And because we vote like that, vote like that, or people that haven’t been paid for five weeks now and that kinds of chaos, those workers borrow more than half a billion dollars from their credit union just to pay their bills now,” Fetterman said. 

Greene appeared for a friendly interview on “The View” on Nov. 4 where she criticized her own party, particularly House Speaker Mike Johnson, for not addressing the potential surge in ACA premiums as the Biden-era subsidies are set to expire on Dec. 31. Democrats have cited these extensions as their reasoning for shutting the government down on Oct. 1, which has become the longest shutdown in U.S. history.

Fetterman, along with one other Democrat and an independent who caucuses with the party, voted to keep the government open during the initial vote on the Republican-led continuing resolution (CR). The Pennsylvania Democrat stated in an Oct. 1 statement that he voted for his “country over party” by voting alongside Senate Republicans to keep the government open.

The eight Democrats who voted to reopen the government on Monday are either retiring or not up for reelection in the 2026 midterms.

Some Democrats, including California Rep. Ro Khanna, are calling for House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to step down from his leadership position over his failure to unify the party against reopening the government over the ACA extensions. Senate Republicans agreed to reverse the layoffs of 4,000 federal workers and schedule a vote on the subsidy extensions in December in exchange for Democrats’ support.