Fetterman’s new book details explosive feud with Gov Josh Shapiro over parole board dispute
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., called Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapio a "f------ a------" during a hot mic moment amid a heated Zoom hearing, his new memoir reveals.
Fetterman, who was the state's lieutenant governor at the time, recalled delivering the outburst after Shapiro delivered a "very long-winded and unnecessary" speech justifying his decision to vote against commuting the sentences of Lee and Dennis Horton, the New York Post reported.
The Lee brothers had been convicted of second-degree murder in a fatal 1993 robbery and shooting.
The hearing was part of the Pennsylvania’s Board of Pardons meeting when Shapiro expressed concerns that transcripts from the siblings’ original trial were missing, Fetterman wrote in the memoir, titled: "Unfettered."
In response, Fetterman became angry. At one point during a private meeting, he threatened to run for governor in 2022 and pull Shapiro into a primary.
"I told him there were two tracks — that one and the one in which he ran for governor and I ran for the Senate (which was the one I preferred)," Fetterman wrote in his new book, "Unfettered," as excerpted by The Philadelphia Inquirer.
"I had no interest in friction, only in what I felt was justice," he added.
The book reportedly details how Shapiro's people reached out to Fetterman.
"He wanted me to retract things I had said and to deny the rumors about the private meeting taking place," Fetterman wrote. "That wasn’t going to happen."
In December 2020, the board voted to commute the Hortons’ sentences. Fetterman eventually invited Dennis Horton to be his guest at the 2023 State of the Union address.
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However, his relationship with Shapiro never recovered.
"I sincerely wish him the best," Fetterman wrote of the governor. "He is a credit to the state and may one day be a credit to the country. I remember fondly the days when we were nobodies trying to climb the ladder. Even if we no longer speak."
The roots of the feud on the parole board stemmed from who was granted parole or a pardon.
"I truly believed with all my heart that nobody I ever supported for a pardon was a danger to society. I was willing to stake my political career on it," Fetterman wrote. "[Shapiro] was far more cautious, and at a certain point, I began to think that what was influencing him was not mere caution but political ambition."
At one meeting, Shapiro voted against parole in 12 of 15 cases, causing Fetterman to break his reading glasses in frustration, the senator recalled.
"I believe what drove him to delay and deny applications was not the facts of a given case as much as a fear that someone whose sentence he’d commuted would go on to commit terrible violence on the outside," Fetterman wrote.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to Shapiro's office for comment.
On Capitol Hill, Fetterman has clashed with his fellow Democrats because of his stance on working with the Trump administration and his support for Israel.