Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) explained his transformation this week from being on the far-Left of the Democrat Party to becoming a center-left Democrat who has much more moderate views than many of his colleagues.

Fetterman made the remarks during a Friday appearance on Bill Maher’s “Real Time” show on HBO while Maher was reflecting on how Fetterman has changed ever since he had his stroke.

“When I see you, especially the last couple of years, you speak so freely. You speak like what politicians who I get on this show who aren’t in politics anymore, the ones who are out of office when they can be honest, and that’s the way you speak now and it’s a beautiful thing,” Maher said. “You speak for a lot of Democrats that are afraid to say a lot of that stuff.”

Maher then asked Fetterman if his near-death experience from his stroke played a role in his political shift.

“Absolutely. There’s a line from the first ‘Batman,’ Joker’s like ‘I’ve been dead once already. It’s very liberating,'” Fetterman responded. “It’s freeing in a way. And I just think after beating all of that, I just really [want to] be able to say the things that I have to really believe in and not be afraid of if there’s any kind of blowback.”

Fetterman said that progressive-wing of the Democrat Party left him, not the other way around.

“After what happened on October 7, I really knew that whole progressive stack would be blasted apart and there would not be any kind of way how the Democrats are going to be able to reply to that kind of response,” he said. “And I really decided early on that I believe that was gonna be the right side with Israel throughout all of that. … Democrats would continue to peel away and kind of walk away from standing with Israel on that.”

Fetterman also mocked far-Left activists: “And even in Philadelphia, the Queers for Palestine blocked the Pride Parade in Philadelphia, and I never saw that on the Bingo card.”

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WATCH:

John Fetterman describes how October 7th was the moment he abandoned the label ‘progressive’:
Bill Maher: “You said ‘I’m not a progressive, I’m a democrat.’ What does that mean?”
JF: “I didn’t leave the label, it left me. After it happened on October 7th I really knew that… pic.twitter.com/iHx5GkJK2T

— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) June 8, 2024