Gisele Fetterman on reaching out to political opposites: ‘I don’t believe in writing people off’
Gisele Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s second lady, tells Yahoo News Senior Political Correspondent Jon Ward that she wants to start a conversation with voters who have different views.
Video transcript
JON WARD: Gisele, how do you approach conversations with people who disagree with you politically? I mean, I don't want to just categorize it as Trump supporters, that is, sort of, the easiest label now. But how do you approach those conversations in the environment that John is describing, where it's post-truth?
GISELE FETTERMAN: I mean, I have a lot of those. And I guess I'm in a unique situation where I don't believe in writing people off. I really try and I run non-profits where I'm serving all people. People who voted completely differently than me. And I have people that will say, oh, I hate immigrants. Immigrants are awful. But you're so nice because you do great things. And I'm in a position where I could say, well, actually I'm not other immigrants. I'm just-- I was undocumented for 15 years. So I have a specific life story and experience.
And I work with people who can write off all the other immigrants, but they think I'm just fine because I help people. So I think there is a way to win people over, and I try in every conversation. I really try to work through that. I try to keep in mind that these people weren't born feeling this way or disliking other people just because they're different. It comes from a fear. It comes from a teaching. It's what they were taught and were passed on. So I try to reach people one by one.
