Senator John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, was confronted by NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Meet the Press on Sunday about Vice President Kamala Harris‘ position on fracking.
During the presidential debate in Philadelphia earlier this month, Harris, the Democratic nominee, promised to not ban fracking if she was elected president. This is a shift in her position on the oil and gas extraction method from just a few years ago when she called for a fracking ban in 2019 during her run for president in the 2020 election.
Harris also sued the Barack Obama administration’s Interior Department in 2016 while she was California’s attorney general to prevent fracking activities in the state, saying at the time, “We must balance our energy needs with our longstanding commitment to protecting our natural resources and public health.”
“Why should voters trust that that is really what the vice president believes?” Welker asked Fetterman about Harris’ new position on fracking, formally known as hydraulic fracturing.
“So strange why we just keep talking about fracking. Back in 2020, I said that it might be an issue but it’s not going to be a defining issue. And now in 2024, we’re still trying to talk about fracking,” Fetterman responded.
The senator added: “Now the other side they’re talking about eating cats and geese and dogs and saying absurd things and talking about how if [former President Donald] Trump doesn’t win he said that you have to blame the Jews for that…the other side is just absolutely on fire.”