Tucker Carlson picked the wrong tattoos to insult. The Fox News host recently went on a “20-minute long rant” about John Fetterman and his tattoos, which Carlson called a “stupid little fake” costume. Naturally, Pennsylvania’s tough as nails lieutenant governor had a whole lot of words for the right-wing provocateur. In a new op-ed for NBC News, Fetterman revealed the true nature of his tattoos, and if Carlson was capable of shame, he’d be feeling pretty foolish right about now.
“So let’s talk about the tattoos that Carlson seems to be so interested in,” Fetterman writes. “I have nine dates tattooed on my right forearm. Each one is a day on which someone died violently in Braddock, Pennsylvania, while I was mayor. Gun violence and violent crime might be jokes to someone like Carlson, but they are very real to people in towns like Braddock.”
After detailing the tragic deaths memorialized on his arm, Fetterman defended his unorthodox approach to elected office and serving his constituents. Via NBC News:
My decision to mark these deaths with tattoos was inspired in part by their permanence — the fact that these people, their stories and my town will be with me forever. I get that etching art permanently onto your body isn’t how most politicians would express their connection to their communities. But I didn’t care about what anyone else thought. It felt right to me.
Of course, Fetterman also used the tattoo discussion as a chance to highlight the stark contrast between his experience serving the state of Pennsylvania, and his opponent Dr. Oz‘s glaring lack thereof.
“While he was making millions of dollars peddling miracle cures from a TV studio in Manhattan and living in a mansion on a hill in New Jersey, I was rolling up my sleeves and putting in the work to make my community safer,” Fetterman writes. “I’m the only candidate in this race who has fought violent crime and won.”
(Via NBC News)