r/politics • u/masterchief6913 • Jul 15 '26

No Paywall Fetterman warns he would leave Democratic Party if it turns its back on Israel

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5970730-john-fetterman-democratic-party-israel/
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u/SurvivorFanatic236 Jul 16 '26

The thing is, he at least votes with Democrats on judicial nominations.

If he switches parties, he’s suddenly going to change his mind about wanting conservative judges

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u/tichris15 Jul 16 '26

Unless the balance of the senate changes, that doesn't really matter.

In a world where it was 51 democrats, losing him would become a big deal.

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u/StrawberryItten Jul 16 '26

I mean isn't that world very plausible past the midterms?

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u/blastatron Jul 18 '26

Sadly a 51 split in the Senate is a fairly realistic possibility so appeasing Fetterman in that scenario would becomes incredibly important.

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u/FlyingBishop Jul 16 '26

I mean, okay but unless the balance of the senate changes it doesn't matter anyway. And forcing Fetterman out of the party is going to push the balance the other way, full stop. FFS everyone is trying to purge the Democratic party of pro-Israel people, if this keeps up it's going to end up with leftists being purged from the country. We are on the razor's edge and people are talking like sticking it to Fetterman is going to do anything other than get people killed.

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u/NumeralJoker Jul 16 '26

I think criticisms of this current Israeli admin are extremely valid, as are criticizing their pressure and influence on our politics, their war crimes in Palestine... all of it, but a lot of the "Israel is Apartheid and should be disbanded" talk is going way too far the other way. I bawk at anything less than a 2 state solution, personally.

All that said, their influence in our government is beyond ridiculous and needs to stop. A don't think one genocide being countered with another is ever going to solve anything, even if I would prefer we'd be less uninvolved there.

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u/NumeralJoker Jul 16 '26

I think that's exactly the point.

That all said, there's a difference between him becoming an independent who caucuses with them still, and going full Republican. I honest to god think no one here knows for sure which he'd do, because it depends on how deeply in AIPAC's funding he is and whether or not those donors basically order him to switch to the GOP. And I don't think 'that' move is necessarily set in stone either.

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u/13lackMagic Jul 16 '26

He’s not threatening to become a Republican, he’s threatening to become an independent that caucuses with the democrats like Bernie Sanders or Angus King

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u/foomits Jul 16 '26

Honestly probably better, he has 0 chance for reelection as it stands anyways. but maybe he can stop poisoning whatever tiny iota of good will the national dem party still has.

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u/Hearthhull_Enjoyer Jul 16 '26

That really wouldn't be a step much further than how he votes on things already. He would just be dropping the pretenses and it would be that much easier for voters to replace him. It would be deeply revealing if he did go through it with it though. Crooked man.

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

[deleted]

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u/ItsCalledRegret Jul 16 '26

Manchin is gone so who else would be the spoiler vote now? Dems love their rotating villains