Sen. John Fetterman is selling 'body double' T-shirts, leaning into the right-wing conspiracy theory

Sen. John Fetterman is selling "body double" T-shirts on his campaign website.

It's a cheeky reference to a right-wing conspiracy theory about the Pennsylvania Democrat.

Joe Biden's campaign made a similar move earlier this year, selling "Dark Brandon" merch.

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John Fetterman is leaning into the meme, selling T-shirts via his campaign website that reference the "body double" conspiracy theory about the Pennsylvania Democrat that has been cropping up on social media, particularly in recent days.

One T-shirt, emblazoned with the phrase "John Fetterman's Body Double," sells for $35 apiece.

It's part of a broader line-up of new merchandise from the Pennsylvania senator's campaign, including references to the newly changed Senate dress code and the epithets lodged against him from the right.

A mock-up of a T-shirt including various anti-Fetterman epithets. Fetterman for PA

"John has loved having fun with the body-double conspiracy theory and the new Senate dress code, and he loves trolling," said his spokesman Joe Calvello. "This is an example of all those things meeting."

"It's all true," Fetterman joked to a reporter about the body-double theory earlier on Tuesday, the audio of which was posted by the senator's own office on Twitter.

"I'm Senator Guy Incognito," Fetterman added, referencing a character from "The Simpsons" who's a doppelganger of the show's protagonist, Homer Simpson.

—Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) September 19, 2023

The Pennsylvania Democrat's decision to lean into the conspiracy theory — which suggests Fetterman has been replaced by a body double, owing to the senator's improved speech capabilities in the wake of his 2022 stroke — is perhaps unsurprising, given the senator's general posture towards the right.

"Go ahead and do it, I dare you," Fetterman recently said of the looming impeachment inquiry led by House Republicans into President Joe Biden. "It would just be like a big circlejerk on the fringe right."

And earlier on Tuesday, he tweeted about "vaping and grabbing the hog," referring to Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado's recent incident at a regional production of "Beetlejuice."

It's also an echo of Biden's decision to embrace the "Dark Brandon" meme, which came about as an ironic response to the "Let's Go Brandon" epithet used by the right, as well as the "Dark MAGA" movement employed by the online far-right. The Biden campaign now sells a variety of "Dark Brandon" merchandise on their campaign website.

In addition to the "body double" shirt, Fetterman's campaign is also selling an "I Vote In This Hoodie" sweatshirt and another T-shirt that includes various insults lodged against the senator by figures on the right, including former President Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.