John Fetterman a heterodox progressive by 2023 standards

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John Fetterman’s had a rollercoaster of a year.

In January, he was sworn into office as Pennsylvania’s new Democratic senator despite suffering from a debilitating stroke on the campaign trail. In doing so, he managed to flip the only seat in the upper chamber during the 2022 cycle. Six weeks after assuming office, he checked himself into a hospital for clinical depression.

Fetterman emerged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as an unlikely evangelizer of mental health treatment, something medical professionals applauded as a stigma-busting move that could save lives.

But in the last few months, Fetterman has returned to the place where he’s most comfortable: as a highly skilled troller. Only this time, his targets have often been allies in the progressive movement who have long seen him as an icon. In the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Fetterman has emerged as one of the most vocal supporters of the country in the Senate.

Are you surprised that so many progressives disagree with you on Israel?
I mean, of course I expected that there will always be a diversity of opinions, and that as long as things go that the Democratic caucus might splinter more. … I would be the last man standing to be absolutely there on the Israeli side on this with no conditions.

I grieve, and it’s awful the incredible civilian deaths and the suffering. It’s awful. War is hell, as they say. But only one side has used civilians as human shields. Only one side has broken the cease-fires. Only one side will systematically rape, torture and mutilate Israeli women and girls in the most unspeakable, awful ways. … Without destroying Hamas, there will be no enduring peace and a stable, two-state solution.

What about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? Should he remain in power?
He’s the leader that we have. And that’s the leader that we’re working with.

Even some Israelis are frustrated with him.
To me, it’s not a referendum on Netanyahu. It’s just what we have to do to stand with Israel. And I do agree with the prevailing opinion that Hamas must be destroyed.

But should Netanyahu stay in power, yes or no?
I don’t have a vote in that. That’s for the Israeli citizens. They have much more at stake. But what I can say [is] I believe that an overwhelming majority of Israeli citizens would want a senator standing with them and their right to destroy Hamas [and not] somebody that would splinter or peel away when things continue and as more and more antisemitism continues to go across college campuses, across our nation.

You have some newfound fans on the online right because of your views on Israel. What do you make of them?
I don’t spend any time on Twitter and that’s the truth. I encourage you — you can check my personal phone. I couldn’t even get on Twitter if I had to.

When did you decide X, formerly known as Twitter, wasn’t worth it?
It was not very helpful to promoting mental health.

Is this something you realized in the last year?
Very much so.

[Editor’s note: A Fetterman staffer said he still drafts “all the memes” on his social media accounts, but he tells his aides to press send.]

Biden’s campaign hasn’t yet announced any battleground staff in Pennsylvania. Should the campaign be more built out in the swing states at this point?
I don’t give anybody advice unless on fashion. … All I do know is that the president will win Pennsylvania. And I do believe if he wins Pennsylvania, and I believe he will, he will be a second-term president.

We’ve talked about this a few months ago, and you told me then you thought Biden would win Pennsylvania and win the overall election. But things have gotten worse for him since. Trump is now ahead in many polls.
But that doesn’t really matter. There’s a whole lifetime in politics between now and next November as well. I’m not worried about that. And I’m very vocal about this, too, while there are Democrats that are being very critical about the president. ... I’ll use this [as] another opportunity to tell James Carville to shut the f**k up. Like I said, my man hasn’t been relevant since grunge was a thing.

When I talk to voters, they’re worried about inflation. They really don’t like the economy. Are you not hearing that?
To me, it’s going to come down to good and evil and personalities and everything about this, too. It’s going to be a gut check kind of a situation where it’s just like, really? Really, really, as you’re going into the voting booth, do we want chaos and somebody that is in three or four criminal hearings? Is this somebody that you want to be their finger back on the button? Or do you want to have a decent and very effective president that has gotten us through the pandemic, addressed inflation and has been a real masterclass of diplomacy with Israel?

What do you think of Dean Phillips, the Democrat who’s mounted a longshot primary campaign against Biden?
I really don’t believe anyone can honestly think that the gelato guy is going to beat Trump. And he has the right to spend his money to figure out that thesis, but I don’t think it’s going to end well for him.

You traveled to Iowa recently, where you were very critical of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, saying he is “running for president right now” but doesn’t have the “guts to announce it.” Why?
I wasn’t so critical about Newsom. I just simply said that it seems kind of strange to challenge a candidate of a race that you’re not involved in. ... It’s also strange that you are going to make a very splash visit to China when the leaders are actually coming to your very own state … a couple of weeks later.

What about you? Would you ever run in 2028 for president?
Fundamentally, about politics, you never go get high on your own supply. And I’m not thinking about 2028. I am only making sure to prioritize 2024.

The allegation that Hamas uses civilians as human shields is controversial. See the Wikipedia article about Use of human shields by Hamas.


Perhaps so, but it should be noted that Hamas's various recent attacks on Israel, including both 10/7 and assorted minor rocket attacks before then, during the past few years at least, have all happened in response to clusters of violations of international law by Israel, which no one else was making any attempt to enforce.

The underlying problem, as I see it, is that international "law" has no reliable enforcement mechanism, especially when a superpower like the U.S.A. insists on unconditionally "standing with" a country that violates it.

Therefore, it is left to militant groups like Hamas to try to take the enforcement of international law into their own hands, with disastrous results, both for their own people and for everyone else.

I'm not at all fond of Hamas, but I regard its existence as a symptom of ongoing underlying problems that need to be solved in a more humane way, if only either (1) the international community had some good way to compel this or (2) the U.S.A. would make its assistance to Israel contingent on Israel adhering to international law.

Anti-Israel demonstrators gathered outside the Braddock, Pa. home of Sen. John Fetterman — who responded to the din by going on his roof and waving an Israeli flag at them.

The progressive-hating Democrat, silently waved the blue and white flag Friday night as protesters waved Palestinian flags and screeched “Fetterman, Fetterman, you can’t hide. You’re supporting genocide.”

The first-term senator, once a darling of progressives, has incurred wrath from the left over his staunch support of Israel to defend itself from Hamas terrorists in the aftermath of Oct. 7. He’s responded by publicly trolling them.

At a November rally for Israel in Washington D.C. he arrived draped in an Israeli flag.

His office is covered with posters of missing and returned Israeli hostages.

Fetterman has also taken to calling the migrant flood at the U.S. border a crisis — something most others in his party have been loathe to do.

The newly centrist senator has picked up many new admirers among conservatives.

“I can’t believe it, but I’m starting to really like & respect Fetterman. 2024 is wild, y’all,” conservative radio host Clay Travis wrote on X after Fetterman’s flag-waving.