John Fetterman Outfit Makes Reporters Jump Out of New York’s Best Restaurants: ‘Puts Everyone in a Bad Mood’ (Video)
New York Post columnist Jon Levine thought he would try out Senator John Fetterman’s “look” at New York City’s best restaurants as a kind of social experiment-slash-political commentary, but there was a problem: Levine is not a sitting U.S. senator.
After the chamber relaxed its dress code to allow Fetterman to look like a complete idiot at all times, Levine thought he’d see if the moderators in the Big Apple would conform to the new Senate standard. Predictably, Levine was not allowed past the gate guards over the weekend while wearing an oversized hoodie, gym shorts and frumpy sneakers.
“The Senate is the greatest deliberative body in the world,” Levine said Monday, citing “Fox & Friends.” “I wanted to see if I could go into restaurants in New York City dressed the way you can now apparently walk into the largest advisory board in the world.”
Host Steve Doocy asked: How did it go?
“The answer was a resounding no,” Levine said, suggesting that his ploy “immediately put everyone in a bad mood.”
“Did anyone look at your getup and say, ‘Get out?'” Doocy asked.
“I would say people were generally polite — there was no overt hostility,” Levine said. “I think a lot of people thought I was crazy. … In general, I was told very politely: ‘Sir, you can’t wear gym clothes, the whole thing won’t work.’ Please leave calmly.”
Even though the experiment was a deeply flawed false equivalence—being John Fetterman and entering the Senate is not the same as being an unknown columnist walking into a fine-dining restaurant in Manhattan—the point was clear.
“Civilization is a choice we make every day,” Levine said. “You [meaning Doocy] I woke up today and put on a suit and tie, and I’ve only seen you on this show in a suit and tie. You have great respect for yourself and your audience. In the United States, you can walk in like you came out of a Pilates class.
Levine suggested that at least one group was particularly hostile to his appearance: the security guards at New York’s Fox studios: “Some of the guys there almost attacked me when I tried to walk in.”
Watch the entire stunt in the video above.
