Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana) accused Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) of being a Communist on Sunday based solely off of his clothing.
In a bizarre post on X, Higgins claimed Fetterman was purposely wearing clothes that one would expect to see on low- and middle-class workers in an effort to subliminally signal his support for Marxism.
“Are we supposed to believe that this guy can’t dress himself yet he can perform as a Senator? Let me say that I don’t buy it,” Higgins said. “This lurch is a communist and he’s demonstrating his allegiance to Marxist principles by wearing ‘workers clothes.'”
Fetterman has repeatedly been criticized, mainly by his political foes, for opting to wear shorts and sweatshirts while on the Senate floor. The issue received renewed attention last week after the Senate announced that it would drop its dress code requiring formal attire, a change that many believed was made solely due to Fetterman.
The response to Higgins’ post fell largely along political lines, with right-wing users on X voicing their support for the claim.
Left-leaning users, however, shot back at Higgins in defense of Fetterman.
“My dude here dresses like 90% of the people I have worked with,” another X user wrote, in part.
At least one user argued that while they believed that Fetterman looked unprofessional, the claim that he must be a communist was absurd.
“I think John Fetterman is a slob who disrespects his office by how he dresses in DC (to wit: a rich guy cosplaying as regular guy/working man) … but this Louisiana GOP Congressman insanely thinks the outfits are some kind of secret communist signaling…” one user argued.
Unfortunately, yet unsurprisingly, conspiracy theorists also weighed in on the topic. Yet instead of focusing on his clothes, the far-right users instead pushed the claim that the man pictured was actually a body double that had replaced the real Fetterman.
“Lurch has a body double…” a conspiratorial user wrote. “Look at the eyes.. Sometimes clarity… Sometimes not.”
Although Fetterman has not responded to Higgins’ commentary as of Monday morning, the Senator has a history of trolling his critics.
Just last week, Fetterman announced a line of new merchandise mocking not only criticism of his attire but of the body double conspiracy theory.
The lawmaker also recently took a shot at Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) after she was captured on a surveillance camera groping a date during a showing of the Beetlejuice musical.
