Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was spotted with former Trump strategist Steve Bannon for about 20 minutes Monday evening at the Capitol Hill restaurant Butterworth’s, a popular hangout for the “Make American Great Again” (MAGA) community.
Fetterman dined that night with Matt Boyle, the Washington bureau chief for Breitbart, according to Politico’s Playbook, which first reported the interaction. He did not have dinner with Bannon.
“Oh my gosh, I don’t have anything,” Fetterman said when asked about the dinner, although he did not deny the report. It’s unknown what the men discussed.
After this story was posted, a spokesman for Fetterman told The Hill: “The run-in with Bannon was inadvertent and impromptu.”
Bannon is a frequent customer at Butterworth’s, which has attracted increasing attention as a watering hole for supporters of President Trump. An inauguration weekend crowd included FBI Director Kash Patel, tech mogul Elon Musk, and the conservative blogger Curtis Yarvin.
The restaurant was also recently named one of the city’s best restaurants by The Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema. The French menu includes lamb tartare, rabbit, and french fries cooked in beef tallow.
Fetterman previously dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in January, drawing scrutiny from some of his colleagues.
He has also increasingly broken with his party in recent months, especially on immigration. He was the sole Democrat to introduce the Laken Riley Act, a controversial law requiring the detention of undocumented immigrants accused of theft, burglary, or shoplifting.
On Monday night, he slammed his party for not condemning the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles, calling the demonstrations “anarchy and true chaos.”
Alex Bolton contributed reporting.
This story was updated at 4:40 p.m.
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