Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) further angered the far-left-wing of the Democrat Party this week after declaring that he was not a progressive Democrat.
Democrat activists have largely not been happy with Fetterman over the last two months because of his strong support for Israel following Hamas’ terror attacks on October 7. He has also repeatedly called on Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) to be expelled from the Senate after he was charged in an alleged bribery scheme to act on behalf of Egypt.
“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.”
He said that he was pro-immigration but favored policies that restricted the flow of how many migrants are allowed in the U.S.
Speaking about ongoing negotiations to fix the crisis at the U.S. southern border, which has been in dire conditions throughout the Biden administration, Fetterman said: “It’s a reasonable conversation — until somebody can say there’s an explanation on what we can do when 270,000 people are being encountered on the border, not including the ones, of course, that we don’t know about.”
“To put that in reference, that is essentially the size of Pittsburgh, the second-largest city in Pennsylvania,” he said.
He said that it was “not ideal” for the border and immigration issue to get attached to aid packages for Ukraine and Israel but said that it needed to happen because Republicans were forcing the issue.
“Progressives better do that because we can’t leave Israel — we can’t sell them out, and we can’t sell Ukraine out, and we have to deliver on this,” Fetterman said. “I just would very much like to get a deal to deliver this critical aid.”
In the interview he kept up his attacks on Menendez, saying that “he needs to go.”
“I don’t understand why he can be here, having expelled Santos,” he said. “But I’m sure there might be a very innocent explanation of having gold bars in your mattress and overstuffed envelopes of cash.”
Some of the responses that Fetterman received online from the far-left included:
Fetterman has never been progressive but endorsing talks for tougher immigration laws when he’s married to an incredible woman who was once an illegal immigrant and who kept his campaign alive while he was recovering from a stroke is actually sickening. https://t.co/4jCUyflgiQ
— Alexandra M. Hunt (@hunt4change) December 15, 2023
Abandoning your base and values to support genocide and attack immigrants. Lowest of the low. https://t.co/Y9gGu0mixV pic.twitter.com/Vn7DBoGWXk
— Read Let This Radicalize You (@JoshuaPHilll) December 15, 2023
More BS from @SenFettermanPA. The criticism isn't that there's something wrong w/engaging talks on the border, it's that he's misleading people about the true nature of those talks, what Ds are already offering in them, and how GOP solutions won't fix the problem of "encounters." https://t.co/4EaSlkTgmh
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) December 15, 2023
Lol his own wife was undocumented, but nope, nothing is more important than supporting Israel for this fucking lurch. https://t.co/s9t8nvMCfS
— Will 🦥 Menaker (@willmenaker) December 15, 2023
John Fetterman has earnestly become one of the most beloved Senators among many Republicans: first due to his pro-Israel fanaticism, then his vote for FBI spying, now his hard-line border security stance.
This one's odd because his wife and her family illegally entered the US: https://t.co/lRvbfx70n7
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 15, 2023