Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has spent much of the past year needling his own party over Israel, and Wednesday night on Fox News' Hannity, he unloaded on antisemitic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. It was vicious.
Hannity asked Fetterman point-blank whether the Democrat Party's drift on Israel could finally be the issue that pushes him to walk away from the party for good. Fetterman didn't blink. "I've been very clear," he told Hannity. "And I've been warning for actually years that the Democratic Party is going to continue to be more and more anti-Israel."
That’s when he turned to Mamdani, and it got ugly fast.
Mamdani, the self-described democratic socialist, has made headlines recently for suggesting he could arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he set foot in New York City. Fetterman treated the threat like the empty stunt it was.
"You are a mayor, dude, you're a mayor," Fetterman said. "You can fix a pothole, you can take out the trash, but you can't order people to arrest anybody." He pointed out that Mamdani has no more authority to threaten Netanyahu with arrest than Fetterman has to ban Mamdani from Pennsylvania. "It's a joke and he's a clown," Fetterman said.
"So sit down," Fetterman continued. "You know you're a clown and you are just going to pander to the fringe and that's part of your base."
ICYMI: Is This the Reason Your Leftist Relatives Are Cutting You Off?
Fetterman then moved past mockery into substance, arguing that Mamdani's coalition reserves its outrage exclusively for Israel while ignoring the terrorists Israel has removed from the battlefield, men like Hamas's Yahya Sinwar and Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah, along with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. "I've never heard the mayor say and condemn Iran for killing 30-40,000 of its young people, just asking for democracy in their nation," Fetterman said.
Fetterman also threw some shade at Graham Platner, a.k.a P-Hustle.
“ And look, I would remind people too, the head of the ICC, to remind people that America is not part of that kangaroo court. Neither is Israel as well, too,” Fetterman said. “But now the leader of that, was now just taken out for sexual abuse. Just like P-Hustle, too in Maine, and now he has no standing, none of it. So that's the kind of people that Mamdani backed, whether it's P-Hustle in Maine or the head of the ICC.“
He even aimed the same fire at the United Nations, an institution he said has spent decades protecting the world's worst human rights abusers while reserving its harshest judgment for the Jewish state. "The UN is intensely anti-Israel, anti-Israel, as it's always been, and now that's become more and more documented," Fetterman said.
John Fetterman on Hannity's show repeatedly calls Mamdani a "clown" and says, "you can't say Netanyahu isn't welcome in New York anymore than I could say, 'mayor, you're not welcome in Pennsylvania. So sit down. You know you're a clown." pic.twitter.com/P2JIi8lUW4
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 23, 2026
Fetterman used the moment to deliver a warning conservatives have been making for months. Mamdani's rise previews where the Democrat Party is headed. His own primary win over Andrew Cuomo, the favored candidate of the Democrat establishment, proved that hostility toward Israel is now a winning credential inside the party rather than a liability. The scary thing is that these socialist primary victories nationwide may ultimately hand real power to candidates who share that hostility, and Fetterman watched it happen up close this election cycle.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
Help PJ Media continue to report on the Democrats’ radicalism and inform voters as our nation faces a crossroads. Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member