Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has turned out to be a pleasant surprise, especially but not merely when it comes to his support for Israel. He's still a Democrat, but one who isn't afraid to call out the anti-Israel, antisemitic, pro-Hamas wing of his party. Not everyone is a fan. Former Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA) called him out when speaking to HuffPost, specifically claiming it's "head-spinning" that Fetterman would have similar qualities to retiring Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who's been considered a moderate or even conservative Democrat.
That HuffPost piece, from earlier this week, referenced how during a Democratic primary debate to fill now-former Sen. Pat Toomey's (R-PA) seat in 2022, Fetterman asked: "Does anyone in this room fashion themselves a Joe Manchin Democrat?" He also pointed out that "I'm grateful that Joe Manchin is a Democrat, but if I were your Democratic senator from Pennsylvania, I’ll never be that vote that holds important stuff up from getting done."
Since getting elected and taking office, though, Fetterman has come to his senses on plenty of issues. As the piece also mentions:
Fetterman, now in his sophomore year in the Senate, has been true to his word about being a reliable Democratic vote in the Senate. But his attacks against members of his own party and public breaks with the White House are drawing comparisons to Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), the two signature Democratic party apostates of the moment, putting on display some of the very tendencies Fetterman said he opposed — even if earlier stages of his career hinted at his current behavior.
This version of the gruff, hoodie-wearing, 6-foot-8 Pennsylvania senator has grated on progressives who supported him during his 2022 run for Senate and even some fellow Keystone Democrats who watched his rise to national prominence.
“There is a head-spinning quality to it,” Lamb, who lost to Fetterman in their Senate primary, said in an interview with HuffPost. “We were in so many of the same rooms during the campaign trail, in which he repeatedly said he would never be [West Virginia Sen.] Joe Manchin.”
“He seems to be finding common cause with Joe Manchin, or at least acting like it,” Lamb added. “It’s so different from the person he presented as on the campaign trail.”
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Despite his moves to the ideological center, Fetterman’s primary race against Lamb in 2022 was often cast in the press as a clash between the progressive left and the Democratic Party establishment. Lamb, a Blue Dog centrist, spent his two terms in the House often straddling party lines. On the campaign trail, he had to battle against the impression he would follow in the footsteps of Manchin, who at the time was busy wrecking Democrats’ biggest legislative ambitions.
Reflecting on the matchup against Fetterman now, Lamb still has some misgivings.
“The spirit of the person he campaigned as is very different,” Lamb said. “I don’t understand what’s driving it. If I was someone that voted for him — and I did in the general election — but if I was one of his original supporters, I’d be disappointed.”
That it's Lamb saying so comes off as something of a desperate look of a sore loser. Not only did Lamb lose, he finished in a rather distant second place, coming in close to 32 points behind Fetterman.
Further, Lamb himself has tried to fashion himself as a moderate. This was especially crucial given that he faced rather close general elections when he represented Pennsylvania's 17th Congressional District, starting with the special election in March 2018.
In case there's any doubt that Fetterman's support for our ally in the Middle East plays a role in the framing of the article, the piece goes on to talk at length about the Israel-Hamas conflict:
In the six months since Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, and throughout the brutal assault on Gaza that followed, Fetterman established himself as perhaps Israel’s most loyal and outspoken Democratic ally. For a long time, his loyalty to Israel put him on the same side of the issue as Biden.
But as the president has amplified his criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government and other Democratic senators have begun exploring ways to hold Israel accountable for civilian deaths in Gaza, Fetterman’s stances have increasingly become outliers.
He has firmly rejected calls for a cease-fire, opposed conditioning U.S. support for Israel if it doesn’t allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza and has defended Israel’s plans for expanding its military campaign into more civilian areas, which Biden has warned against.
On CNN recently, Fetterman urged Biden not to “capitulate to the fringe” in his party when it comes to Israel and said he didn’t agree with the president telling Netanyahu that the U.S. would not participate in a retaliatory operation against Iran after it launched hundreds of drones to attack Israel.
“I think it really demonstrates how it’s astonishing that we are not standing firmly with Israel,” Fetterman said, echoing Republican criticism of Biden’s handling of the situation.
That kind of talk has earned Fetterman plenty of criticism from the left. One post on the Daily Kos, a progressive news blog, even called him “the new Sinema.”
It's refreshing to see a more honest take when it comes to how President Joe Biden isn't so pro-Israel as others in the mainstream media want people to believe, especially lately. Biden also has the motivation to throw our ally in the Middle East under the bus in order to appease the far-left, anti-Israel base in key swing states.
And again, Fetterman is a Democrat himself and a fan of Biden. He also, unlike Manchin, opposes the filibuster and even campaigned on getting rid of it in order to pass a radically pro-abortion bill, the Women's Health Protection Act (WHPA).
Bringing it back to his support for Israel, HuffPost also mentioned this much:
To Fetterman, however, being critical of Biden’s Israel policy doesn’t mean he is any less supportive of Biden’s campaign for reelection. He also doesn’t think calling out Biden over Israel will harm his odds against Trump in the November presidential election, a bit of a reversal from when he said in February that those questioning Biden’s age and ability to serve a second term would only help Trump win.
“I have my view, and anyone else can have their view, and that’s perfectly reasonable. I don’t know why that’s controversial one way or another,” Fetterman said when asked about breaking with Biden on foreign policy.
The swing state of Pennsylvania may not be so much of a concern for Biden as others, especially Michigan, are considered to be. And again, it's the anti-Israel, even pro-Hamas base of the Democratic Party that's presenting a problem for Biden if they stay home in November. Over 101,000 voters went "uncommitted," for the Democratic Primary in Michigan in late February. Biden still won the primary in Michigan and has since earned enough delegates to become the presumptive nominee, but in a close and competitive election like what we're expecting to see in November, these votes matter.
Such concerns don't merely highlight the squabble between Fetterman and Lamb, but also how increasingly extreme the Democratic Party is on Israel. Lamb has had some pro-Israel posts, especially last October following Hamas' attack on Israel, but they're not as much as Fetterman has had, and certainly not as outspoken. When it comes to those supporters of Fetterman who Lamb offers might "be disappointed," if it's, in fact, to do with the issue of Israel, that definitely brings up concerning views about the Democratic Party.
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