Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) pledged to remain in the Democratic Party after saying he would leave it if it officially adopts an anti-Israel platform.
Fetterman said in the middle of July that if “our party ever becomes, and just makes it official, the anti-Israel party, that’s when I would leave because that’s been a moral clarity for me.” But in an interview with the New York Times published Thursday, Fetterman said he would “never” leave his party, after being pressed over whether he might flee should it capture a narrow majority in the Senate in November’s elections.
“Never,” he said. “I’m not being cute. I vote 90-something percent with Democrats.”
Though he has repeatedly dismissed speculation he’ll switch parties, rumors that Fetterman might switch to the GOP or become an Independent have grown as he has expressed increasing dissatisfaction with the rise of socialism and left-wing factions in the party.
“These people aren’t Democrats,” Fetterman said this week. “We can have different views on certain things, but would you want to abolish the border, abolish prison, abolish the presidency, abolish the Senate? That’s just full-on communism.”
Fetterman referred to Darializa Avila Chevalier, a self-described “prison abolitionist” candidate in New York who is against deporting anyone from the United States, and the Democratic Socialists of America’s platform to abolish the Senate, among others.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told the outlet this week that he wanted Fetterman to remain a Democrat.
“The people in our caucus very much like him and respect him,” he said, noting Fetterman’s backing of most Democratic initiatives. “And we’re a big-tent party; we can have a lot of different views in that party.”
JEFFRIES THWARTS THE LEFT, OPPOSES ENDING ALL AID TO ISRAEL
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said he hadn’t discussed party switches with Fetterman recently, but said the Pennsylvania Democrat would be welcome in the Republican Party.
“I have had conversations with him in the past, as have many of my colleagues, about the challenges he faces in his caucus,” Thune said. “There are many of us who I think would welcome the opportunity to have him join the Republican conference. But, you know, ultimately that’s a decision that’s left up to him.”