Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner on Thursday said Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has “completely sold out,” slamming the fellow Democrat on CNN for condemning rhetoric that likens U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Nazis, saying it can “incite violence.”
“John Fetterman is … the favorite Democratic senator of Donald Trump,” Krasner said during an appearance on “The Source with Kaitlin Collins.” “He’s said that repeatedly. And that’s because John Fetterman has completely sold out the principles on which he ran for office.”
“But what he’s been doing, for quite some time, for whatever reason — and we all know there may be a few reasons — is completely unacceptable for anyone who actually believes in democracy and who actually believes in the rule of law,” continued Krasner, who said he voted for Fetterman.
Conservative news outlets scrutinized Krasner earlier this week after he stated that ICE agents are “a small bunch of wannabe Nazis,” adding “we outnumber them” and warning they could be “hunted down” like the Nazis were after World War II. This led to a rebuke from Fetterman.
“That’s gross, and I absolutely condemn that, absolutely,” Fetterman said on Wednesday on Fox News. “Do not compare anyone to Nazis. Don’t use that kind of rhetoric. That can incite violence and … I strongly reject that and condemn that kind of language in the strongest terms. You know, members of ICE are not Nazis.”
Fetterman — who had regularly criticized Trump over his false claims about the 2020 election — later became the only Democratic senator to support Trump’s 2024 nomination for Attorney General Pam Bondi and criticized former Vice President Kamala Harris for calling Trump a “fascist.” Trump last year called Fetterman “the most sensible” Democrat.
Krasner vowed earlier this week to prosecute federal officers who break state laws following Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, joining a coalition of prosecutors dubbed “Fight Against Federal Overreach,” or F.A.F.O. — a cheeky reference to the acronym for “fuck around and find out,” which has become a favorite phrase of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other members of the Trump administration.
Political tensions surrounding the Trump administration’s anti-immigration raids became increasingly fraught after an ICE officer killed Minneapolis resident Renee Good earlier this month, and eyewitness videos caught Border Protection officers fatally shooting Pretti.
When asked on CNN Thursday if he couldn’t have made his point about ICE without comparing them to Nazis, Krasner replied, “Why would I do that? The reality is, they’re taking almost everything they do out of the Nazi playbook.”
Krasner noted that he hadn’t said “all” ICE agents were like Nazis; however, he added that there are “a lot of great federal officers,” but those who commit alleged crimes like homicide should be treated “like everyone else” by the U.S. criminal justice system.
“The point I was making is actually very straightforward,” he said. “When you kill people, we can hunt you down and bring you to justice, in 10 years, or 20 or 30 years, just like what happened with the Golden State Killer, who was a serial killer in California.”
Krasner continued, “That’s how it worked. It worked that way with the Nazis, but it also works that way with all kinds of other criminals who commit terrible crimes.”