Journalist Katie Couric hammered Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) on President Donald Trump and slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, which had the White House calling her a “washed up idiot.”

Fetterman was Couric’s guest on her podcast, “Next Question,” where she peppered the lawmaker, apparently goading him to disavow both Trump and Kirk. Fetterman, however, did not give in.

Couric asked Fetterman if he thought it was OK that Kirk’s body was flown home on Air Force Two. She also asked if he should have been given the Medal of Freedom posthumously.

Fetterman said it was the Trump’s decision to make. Couric then asked about Kirk’s past rhetoricand whether it was “extreme.”

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung went on X to slam Couric Thursday.

“This washed up idiot @katiecouric is an absolute ghoul. She tries to justify the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. Disgusting people like Katie should be shamed and embarrassed forever,” Cheung wrote.

While Fetterman said didn’t agree with some of the things Kirk said, it was “entirely appropriate” to allow people to grieve and respect their space without taking “that opportunity to push an argument or to remind people that, ‘Hey, I don’t agree,'” per the outlet.

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“A father of young children was shot in public because of his political views, and that’s a tragedy, and give people the space to grieve,” he added.

Fetterman maintained that while he “didn’t agree with much of it,” Kirk’s rhetoric would “never justify what’s happened” and that he chose not to “take the opportunity to argue his views after children lost their father in the most violent, public way.”

She also questioned Fetterman about Trump and him stating previously that the president is not an autocrat because his presidency is “the product of a democratic election.”

Couric argued that “history has shown that even leaders who come to power through elections can still govern in anti-democratic ways.”

“So I have to ask when you consider some of Donald Trump’s behaviors and policies, like deploying federal forces to U.S. cities, undermining the Department of Justice’s independence, attempting to overturn the 2020 election. Does that not trouble you deeply?” she asked.

“Of course,” Fetterman said, adding that he pushed back when Trump claimed Pennsylvania was not a “fair and free election.”

“But I think at this point right now, we are not in an autocracy,” Fetterman said. “We’re in a democracy and that’s why they were able to shut our government down. And that doesn’t mean that we appreciate what’s happening.”

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