New York Post columnist Jon Levine thought he’d try out the Sen. John Fetterman “look” at New York City’s finest restaurants as something of a social experiment-slash-political commentary, but there was a problem: Levine is not a sitting U.S. senator.
In the wake of the chamber relaxing its dress code so Fetterman can look like a complete slob at all times, Levine thought he’d see if the Big Apple’s front-of-the-house hosts would stoop to the new Senate standard. Predictably, Levine was not allowed past the gatekeepers while wearing an oversized hoodie, gym shorts and frumpy trainers over the weekend.
“The Senate is the world’s greatest deliberative body,” Levine said Monday, modeling his Fetterman ‘fit on “Fox & Friends.” “I wanted to see if I could walk into the – into restaurants in New York City dressed like you can now apparently walk into the world’s greatest deliberative body.”
Host Steve Doocy asked: How’d it go?
“The answer was a resounding no,” Levine said, suggesting his schtick “immediately put everyone in a bad mood.”
“Did anyone take a look at your getup and say, ‘Get Out?’” Doocy asked.
“People were generally, I would say, polite – there was no open hostility,” Levine said. “I think at lot of people thought I was crazy. … Generally I was very politely told like, ‘Sir, you can’t have athletic wear, the whole thing is not going to work. Please leave quietly.”
Though the experiment was a deeply flawed false equivalency – being John Fetterman and walking into the Senate is not the same as being an unknown columnist walking into a Manhattan fine dining establishment – the point was clear.
“Civilization is a choice that we make every single day,” Levine said. “You [meaning Doocy] woke up today and you put on a suit and tie, and I have only ever seen you on this show in suit and tie. You have great respect for yourself and your audience. In the United States you can just march in like you came out of a pilates class.
Levine did suggest that at least one group was especially hostile to his look: The security guards at Fox’s New York studios: “I was nearly tackled by some of the guys there when I tried to walk in.”
Watch the entire stunt in the video above.
