Pennsylvania’s junior senator endured the acidulous ridicule of social media after posting on Twitter a “Happy Juneteenth” greeting to African-Americans. Many mocked his commemoration of the holiday by reminding him of a 2013 incident where he pulled a shotgun out on an innocent Black jogger.
Without proof, the politician believed the unarmed Black jogger was part of an earlier shooting.
Like many other politicians, Sen. John Fetterman and his team thought it would be appropriate to mark the federal holiday with a tweet.
“Happy Juneteenth! Today we celebrate emancipation + reflect on the long shadow of systemic racism in America,” the former Pennsylvania lieutenant governor wrote, adding, “PA always stands by the unshakeable truth that Black families matter + Black lives matter.”
GOP stakeholders immediately jumped into his comments and reminded the public of a racial profiling scandal from a decade ago.
Steven Guest, a former special communications adviser for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, was one of the first to reply to the post with a screenshot of a headline from the Philadelphia Inquirer that read, “Everything to know about the 2013 John Fetterman jogger incident: Lt. Gov. John Fetterman pursued a man in 2013 and pulled a shotgun on him because he wrongly believed the Black jogger had been involved in a shooting.”
One person sarcastically wrote, “Do black joggers matter?” mocking the Black Lives Matter tag.
Another questioned, “Didn’t you pull a shotgun on an unarmed black jogger once? Maybe sit this one out, racist.”
The tweet began going viral for all the wrong reasons.
“Senator, why don’t you tell that story about that time you chased a black jogger and held a shotgun on him because you thought he was a criminal?” tweeted Tim Murtaugh, former President Donald Trump’s campaign communications director.
The debacle has been a sore spot in Fetterman’s political career, with the topic coming…
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