Fetterman appears in video praising McCormick at GOP midterm convention

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) appeared in a video praising Sen. Dave McCormick (Pa.) at the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) midterm convention Wednesday.

“Why am I here talking to you today?” Fetterman said in a pre-recorded video. “Because, well, I’m a common sense Democrat.”

“David McCormick is the kind of senator that gets the job done” he added, noting the duo would work with President Trump to help revitalize Pennsylvania’s manufacturing industry while calling McCormick a “friend.”

Manufacturing jobs in the commonwealth have declined slightly during the president’s second term, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data analyzed by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Earlier this summer. Fetterman and McCormick teamed up to launch a joint fundraising committee.

Fetterman also said in the video that he would always “reject the extremes in socialism and that anti-American way of life” — comments that come as democratic socialist and progressive candidates have won their Democratic primaries for Senate and House.

Fetterman has attracted the ire of many of his Democratic colleagues in both chambers for breaking with the party on multiple issues. The Pennsylvania senator has notably been the only Democrat to vote against every Senate war powers resolution seeking to force Trump to wind down the Iran war.

Fetterman, a staunch supporter of Israel, has vocally supported the U.S. operation against the Islamic Republic on social media and during TV interviews — including on Fox News.

Last year, Fetterman voted in line with Trump’s position 28 percent of the time, the most of any Senate Democrat, per data from VoteHub . The Democratic lawmaker was among a small group of Democrats to join Republicans in voting to end the record-long government shutdown last November.

The Pennsylvania senator has said he has no plans to become a Republican, but he laid out his red line for departing the Democratic Party in July

“If our party ever becomes — and just makes it official — the anti-Israel party, that’s when I would leave,” he told The Hill’s Alexander Bolton at the Hill Nation Summit.

Criticism of Fetterman ramped up among his Democratic colleagues over the weekend, after The Wall Street Journal published a story outlining the senator’s alleged lack of commitment to his duties.

Fetterman pushed back on the report, telling CNN his former “disgruntled staffers” are promoting “smears” about him.