More staff members exit Sen. Fetterman’s office as he seeks a political middle ground
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The staff churn in Sen. John Fetterman’s office continues.
NBC News is reporting that two of Fetterman’s longest serving staff members are exiting as the Pennsylvania Democrat seeks to find a working lane between his party and the president.
The departures of Charlie Hills, the communications director, and Tre Easton, legislative director, come a month after another high level staffer, Carrie Adams, left after she publicly disagreed with Fetterman over the war in Gaza.
Hills and Easton’s work with Fetterman dates to his 2022 Senate campaign.
“Working for John afforded me the opportunity to build a diligent policy team from scratch,” Easton said in a statement to NBC News. “Together we created a legislative body of work that I think is a blueprint for how Democrats should be governing when they have power. I’ll forever be grateful.”
Four of Fetterman’s top staffers resigned in 2024, including chief-of-staff Adam Jentleson.
Fetterman has broken with fellow Democrats on a number of issues in the last 18 months, most notably his unwavering support for Israel in the war in Gaza, and most recently by supporting several of President Trump’s Cabinet picks, including Pam Bondi as attorney general. Fetterman was the only Democrat to vote for Bondi’s confirmation.
Fetterman voted with his party against the most controversial trio of nominees so far: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Fetterman, the only Democrat to meet with Trump after his election, has urged Democrats to “stop freaking out” about Trump’s actions and has maintained that Trump and Elon Musk’s slashing of government jobs and programs does not mean the nation is in a constitutional crisis.
Although in recent days Fetterman, who had praised Musk’s achievements and acknowledged Pennsylvanians voted for Trump’s severe government cutbacks, has criticized Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, posting on X it is causing “chaos and confusion.”