Though first-term Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman is far from a Sinema/Manchin type, he has been giving the woke left fits in recent weeks with his right-leaning stances on illegal immigration, the Sen. Bob Menendez scandal, and, most of all, his staunch support for Israel.
Fetterman, who suffered a debilitating stroke in May 2022 during his Senate run and who spent a considerable amount of time away from the Senate in early 2023 after checking himself into a hospital for severe depression, has even gone so far as to take his case to “The View,” where earlier this month he frustrated the far-left co-hosts by among other things arguing that Menendez needed to go:
But to me, I think the more important picture is that we have a colleague in the Senate that actually did much more sinister and serious kind of things: Senator Menendez. He needs to go. And if you are going to expel Santos, how can you allow somebody like Menendez to remain in the Senate?And, you know, Santos’s kind of lies were almost funny and, like, he landed on the moon and that kind of stuff. Whereas, you know, I think, you know, Menendez, I think is really a senator for Egypt, not New Jersey. So, I really think he needs to go, and especially it’s kind of strange that if Santos is not allowed to remain in the House, you know, someone like that —
Watch:
Though Fetterman has also outraged the anti-Israel contingent on the left by doing things like repeatedly calling for the safe release of the hostages held by Hamas and openly trolling agitators during protests, it was a recent interview he did with NBC News that sent some Democrats over the edge:
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is breaking with progressives on hot-button issues with his fiery support for Israel and calls for Democrats to engage on tougher immigration laws, disappointing some on the left as he shows an independent streak.He’s also continually scolding Democrats for not pushing Sen. Bob Menendez out of office after he was indicted on federal charges of taking bribes and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt, which the New Jersey Democrat denies.[…]“I’m not a progressive,” Fetterman told NBC News. “I just think I’m a Democrat that is very committed to choice and other things. But with Israel, I’m going to be on the right side of that. And immigration is something near and dear to me, and I think we do have to effectively address it as well.”
The New Republic wrote in the aftermath that Fetterman had “finally announced” he was “not the progressive he pretended to be.” In their piece, they pointed to all the times Fetterman had used the word “progressive” to characterize himself and the movement to elect him.
The Twitter machine also had its fair share of leftist Fetterman critics airing their grievances:
Fetterman’s stances have had some conservative influencers suggesting he has more or less turned into one himself:
I don’t really see it that way. Though maybe not a hardcore woke progressive, he’s still a staunch Democrat. He’s pro-abortion, pro-Big Labor, pro-“tax the rich,” pro gun rights restrictions, and is soft on crime. But the fact that Fetterman’s been more right than left on Menendez, illegal immigration, and Israel as of late is certainly welcome all the same.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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