Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said Tuesday that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) “never” spoke with him about the ongoing government shutdown, adding that “no one really knows” who is leading Democrats in Congress. Appearing on Fox & Friends, Fetterman responded to an Axios report claiming Schumer had privately urged moderate Democrats to keep the government closed until the start of Affordable Care Act open enrollment on Nov. 1. “I was not in a conversation or I never got any outreach,” Fetterman said, noting that he had long advocated for keeping the government open.

On Monday night, Fetterman was among eight Democrats and Democrat-aligned independents who voted to reopen the government after a five-week shutdown — the longest in U.S. history — without securing any new concessions on extending ACA subsidies. “It’s always a hard yes to keep our government open,” Fetterman said. “It’s wrong to shut our government down. People went five weeks without being paid — that’s a violation of my core values.” He criticized his party for turning the shutdown into “a political stunt,” calling it an “absolute failure” and warning that “Americans are not leverage.” When asked who was running the Democratic Party, Fetterman replied bluntly, “No one really knows.”

The Pennsylvania senator, who has distanced himself from his party’s far-left wing, said Democrats crossed a line by risking SNAP benefits and military pay. He also promoted his new memoir, Unfettered, encouraging those struggling with depression to “stay in the game” and seek recovery.