Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh blasted Pennsylvania Lt. Governor and Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman for arguing that racial minorities are less capable of getting voter ID.
In a resurfaced clip from December 2021, the candidate remarked that Pennsylvania lawmakers were attempting to pass a constitutional amendment requiring voter ID for “every time you vote” — a policy that he implied was discriminatory because people “who typically are on the poorer side and are people of color” are less likely “to have their ID at any one given time.”
Walsh remarked that Fetterman’s remarks are worse than the “bigotry of low expectations” because they reflect “just no expectations whatsoever.”
“If you’re an adult in modern society, you must have some kind of photo ID because you can’t do anything without it,” Walsh noted. “You can’t rent an apartment. You certainly can’t buy a house. You can’t get a credit card — you can’t do anything. … I’m not sure I’ve met an adult who doesn’t have a photo ID. I would like to meet an adult like that just so I can talk to them. I have so many questions.”
Leftists have balked at Republican officials’ attempts to strengthen election security requirements over the past year. After Georgia passed legislation that requires citizens to include a driver’s license number when voting by mail, several companies sanctioned the state, while President Joe Biden argued that lawmakers were “putting up obstacles” because “to them, too many people voting in a democracy is a problem.”
In response to Fetterman’s comments, Walsh added that “acting as though it is some great burden to go get a photo ID even though one is required for everything else” is one of the most “ridiculous strawmen” pushed by leftists.
“They can require you to go and inject something into your body and take a card and carry that around with you,” Walsh observed. “But going to get a photo ID is a burden that is too cumbersome for people to carry.”
In response to leftists making the argument that black people in particular cannot obtain photo ID, Walsh remarked that it is “hard to think of something more degrading, insulting, and paternalistic than that.”
Fetterman, who served as the mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, before starting his tenure in Harrisburg, provoked controversy in 2013 after responding to what he believed was gunfire by pulling a firearm on an African American and detaining him until police arrived — an incident that has generated unease among black Democratic voters.
The candidate, who often appears in public clad in a hoodie and basketball shorts, has nodded to drug decriminalization and publicly supported Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who is currently under investigation from Republican and Democratic members of the Pennsylvania House for allegedly neglecting to enforce the city’s laws.
Fetterman is campaigning against Republican rival Dr. Mehmet Oz in one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate contests. He currently leads Oz by 48.4% to 43.5%, according to a survey conducted by the Trafalgar Group.
However, Fetterman suffered a stroke days ahead of the primary elections and has made few public appearances in recent months. Because he has slurred, repeated himself, and lost his train of thought in the handful of general election events he has attended, much of his campaign has centered upon online trolling of Dr. Oz over his links to New Jersey and ownership of multiple properties.