(Pa) Fetterman skips forum with Black clergy, drawing criticism [View all]
When Philadelphia Black clergy members held a forum last week with Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate candidates, there was one notable absence: the Democratic front-runner.
Lt. Gov. John Fetterman didn’t attend.
His three main primary opponents did, answering policy questions the night after Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the historic Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Germantown. The event was streamed live by churches in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh as candidates addressed concerns raised by Black leaders, whose communities are a pillar of the Democratic coalition.
Fetterman said he had to preside over the state Senate that day. But to some of the roughly 25 clergy who participated, it was a damaging snub — the kind that two other Democratic groups say they’ve also experienced. The no-show brought into the open simmering questions in Democratic circles about whether Fetterman can handle the intense scrutiny that comes with being his party’s early leader in one of the country’s most crucial Senate races. It also drew criticism of his willingness to listen to Black voters.
Fetterman’s campaign said his responsibilities presiding over the Senate on their first day of the 2022 session “made his attendance literally impossible.” The state constitution has provisions for the Senate President Pro Tempore to lead the chamber when the lieutenant governor is absent, and Fetterman has missed sessions before, though not frequently.
For Black community leaders, his absence from a public forum meant they and their congregants didn’t get to hear directly from Fetterman — or to ask about a 2013 incident in which he held a Black jogger at gunpoint, a moment that has sometimes dogged his campaign.
https://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2022/01/25/Pennsylvania-John-Fetterman-senate-campaign-skipped-Black-clergy-forum-democrats-criticism/stories/202201250102
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