John Fetterman Confronted on Kamala Harris’ Fracking Position

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.

“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.”

During the September 10 debate, Trump, the GOP nominee falsely claimed that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were “eating the pets.” Trump was fact-checked by moderator David Muir from ABC News during the debate and Springfield authorities have repeatedly denied such claims.

Meanwhile, at a “Fighting Antisemitism in America” campaign event in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Trump said that “if I don’t win this election,” then “the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss.”

Newsweek has reached out to Harris’ and Trump’s campaigns as well as Fetterman’s office via email for comment late Sunday morning.

Fetterman, who has backed Harris, told Welker that the presidential election, is “going to be very close in Pennsylvania and it’s not going to be defined by fracking.”

Harris currently leads Trump by 1.4 points in Pennsylvania (48.2 to 46.8 percent), according to poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight. Meanwhile, polling analyst Nate Silver said on Saturday that the vice president has a 57 percent chance of winning the state. Pennsylvania has 19 electoral votes, so it would be a big win for whichever nominee gets the most votes there.

Welker on Sunday then picked out past quotes from Fetterman on fracking that show his own position change on the matter like in 2018 when he said, “I don’t support fracking at all” and in 2022 when he said, “I absolutely support fracking.”

“What exactly do you like about fracking now?” Welker asked the senator.

Fetterman said Welker was “taking the quotes out of context,” adding, “I fully support fracking, so does Vice President Harris. Now if you want to have a serious conversation about policy, then I would challenge Trump and [Trump’s running mate Ohio Senator JD] Vance to have one other than talking about eating pets.”

Fracking supported over 120,000 jobs in Pennsylvania in 2022. While the practice—which involves injecting water, sand and/or chemicals into a well to break up underground bedrock—boosts oil and gas production and creates jobs, it also is linked to negative environmental impacts and health risks for communities around the wells.

Trump, who supports increasing oil production, said of Harris on the Philadelphia debate stage, “If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on day one,” adding, “Oil will be dead, fossil fuel will be dead.”

“I will not ban fracking, I have not banned fracking as vice president of the United States. And, in fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking,” Harris said during the debate. “My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil.”