Sources close to Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) say he has expressed concern that Kamala Harris will select Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate.
Speaking with Politico, several of Fetterman’s close aides said they reached out to the Harris campaign to express some of the senator’s concerns about her picking Shapiro.
“Fetterman’s advisers suggested to Harris’ team that the senator believes that Shapiro is excessively focused on his own personal ambitions. His reservations about Shapiro reflect a long-running rivalry between the two ambitious Democrats, who have risen on parallel tracks in a politically crucial state,” noted Politico.
The moment that President Joe Biden endorsed Harris as the nominee, Shapiro immediately shot to the top of the list as potential running mates due to his position in the crucial state of Pennsylvania and his politically moderate brand. According to Fetterman’s aides, the senator clashed with Shapiro while the two served on Pennsylvania’s Board of Pardons. Per Politico:
Fetterman sought to revitalize the institution and provide second chances to some convicts. Shapiro often took a less lenient position, arguing that he believed in criminal justice reform but that the commutations process was not the place for “structural” changes. Fetterman and Shapiro clashed in particular over the fate of Lee and Dennis Horton, brothers who had been convicted in a fatal shooting and robbery in 1993 but maintained their innocence for decades.
A Fetterman spokesperson declined to comment on the matter but Shapiro’s spokesperson defended his work on the Board of Pardons.
“The governor evaluates every pardons case individually and on its merits and during his time as attorney general, he approved more pardons and commutations than all of his predecessors over the last 25 years, combined,” he said. “He is proud of his record of delivering meaningful criminal justice reform while making Pennsylvania communities safer.”
The far-left wing of the Democrat Party has also taken a swipe at Josh Shapiro due to his pro-Israel stances. As Breitbart News reported, Shapiro recently came under fire over an anti-Palestinian op-ed he wrote in 1993.
“In the op-ed, Shapiro disclosed that he had volunteered at an Israeli army base as a teenager, and opined that the Palestinians were ‘too battle-minded to be able to establish a peaceful homeland of their own,’” said the report.
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