I have to say that Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) continues to surprise me. In fact, I’m starting to wonder if Democrats will turn on him. He’s become a progressive icon of sorts since joining the Senate, and generally for not great reasons, such as his unprofessional wardrobe choices, his slow recovery from his stroke, and struggles with depression.
While I don’t doubt he’s still a die-hard leftist, he’s made waves recently for going against the progressive grain. Since the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel and the subsequent war, Fetterman has been a staunch supporter of Israel. Between waving the Israeli flag at pro-Palestinian protesters and keeping posters of hostages on the wall of his Senate office, his support of Israel has been significantly stronger than that of many in his party. Even Joe Biden, who originally expressed full support for Israel, has been gradually caving to the pro-Hamas wing of his party.
Fetterman surprised me again after he rightly called for Sen. Bob Menendez's resignation upon being indicted on federal bribery charges. Not even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was willing to do that, insisting that Menendez deserves the presumption of innocence, but Fetterman argued there was a double standard because George Santos wasn’t afforded that same presumption.
"Well, it's like, I'm not surprised. 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 kinds of things,” Fetterman said during an interview on The View. "Senator Menendez, he needs to go. And if you are going to expel Santos, how can you allow to somebody like Menendez to remain in the Senate?"
Related: John Fetterman Faces Backlash for the Wrong Reasons
Gotta give credit where credit is due, and Fetterman deserves credit for going against the party’s narrative. Those two scenarios alone were enough for me to wonder if I’d misjudged Fetterman. But he still wasn’t done surprising me.
Can you believe that this week he’s even called for border security and criticized his party for resisting talking about the issue?
“I hope Democrats can understand that it isn’t xenophobic to be concerned about the border,” Fetterman told Politico. “It’s a reasonable conversation, and Democrats should engage.”
Fetterman even called on his party to acknowledge the severity of the situation at the southern border, pointing to the nearly 270,000 border encounters reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in September.
“Honestly, it’s astonishing. And this isn’t a Fox News kind of statistic. This is the government’s,” he said. “You essentially have Pittsburgh showing up there at the border.”
None of these things change the fact that Fetterman is a liberal Democrat. But when he stands up for Israel, calls for the accountability of members of his party, and is willing to acknowledge the border crisis and the need for a solution, he sounds more like a Democrat from the 90s... and it's quite refreshing.
Will his party turn on him if he keeps this up?
