'The View' host confronts Fetterman on shutdown stance, says he brought 'butter knife' to gunfight

"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin pressed Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., on Tuesday on why he voted to end the government shutdown, accusing him of bringing a butter knife to a "gunfight."

Hostin quoted Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., who both criticized the decision by eight senators to vote to end the shutdown. She also said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., "blamed the GOP."

"As you mentioned, Democrats had big wins last week, so you had momentum. Why give in now? Why bring a butter knife to a gunfight? Are you willing to gamble that the GOP will negotiate on healthcare in good faith once the government reopens? Because if that gamble is wrong, half a million Pennsylvanians that you represent, their healthcare costs will skyrocket if you are wrong," Hostin said. "I believe you are wrong."

Fetterman has consistently voted with the GOP senators to reopen the government throughout the 41-day shutdown. He was joined by seven other senators on Monday – Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., Tim Kaine, D-Va., and the number two Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who all voted on an updated CR that would end the shutdown.

Sunny Hostin attends Max Original’s "And Just Like That" Season 3 photo call at Crane Club on May 21, 2025, in New York City. Sen. John Fetterman appears during the sixth installment of The Senate Project, moderated by Fox News anchor Shannon Bream, at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate on June 2, 2025, in Boston, Mass. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images; Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

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"MTG is quite literally the last person in America that I’m going to take advice or to get their kinds of my leadership and values from. Now, if Democrats are celebrating crazy pants like that, then that’s on them. Now, I don’t need a lecture from, whether it’s Bernie or the governor in California, because they are representing very deep-blue kinds of populations and a lot of those things were part of the extreme," Fetterman said.

The Pennsylvania senator said he wanted to quote Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, who said Sunday that the Democrats' election wins last week should not be seen as permission to keep the government closed.

"Forty-two million Americans now are not sure where their next meal is going to come from, and because we vote like that. Or people that haven’t been paid for five weeks now, and that kinds of chaos. Those workers borrow more than half a billion dollars from their credit union just to pay their bills," Fetterman said.

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Hostin criticized the Democratic Party for supporting the move to end the shutdown on Monday. The liberal co-host said Sen. Chuck Schumer's days were "over" and that he needed to be replaced.

The Democratic senator argued throughout the interview that the shutdown was fundamentally wrong.

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Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is seen in the U.S. Capitol during votes related to the government shutdown on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

"I refuse to weaponize the SNAP benefit for 42 million Americans that rely on feeding themselves and their family, or making flying in America, you know, less safe, or I refuse not to pay our military and all of the unions attached to all of this, and people. So for me it’s like I don’t agree with that tactic to respond to circumstances that we’re confronting on this," he added.

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Fetterman said on social media in early October that he was choosing his country over his party by voting to end the shutdown, citing concerns over SNAP benefits.