Fetterman also warned his party not to turn the next two years ‘into a circus of constant hearings’ about getting ‘payback’ on the Trump administration

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman signaled that he would consider quitting the Democratic Party if the caucus elected Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen as majority leader, citing disagreements over U.S. policy toward Israel.

Fetterman was asked Saturday on Fox News whether there was a “red line” that would prompt him to walk away from his party if it moved further to the left.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Fetterman said in a clip highlighted on X by journalist Aaron Rupar. “It would be troubling if my caucus elects someone like Van Hollen that has really made his name being very anti-hostile to Israel, you know. If you are going to be angry or hostile towards any countries in the region, why not make that, you know, Iran or Hezbollah or Hamas as well too?”

    • jmm@lemmy.zip
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      57 minutes ago

      Unfortunately, not, unless the Senate expels him. Voters don’t even have the right to do a recall.

      The next “best” option is censure and expulsion from the party. Particularly with censure, he can lose his committee assignments and be shunned. With the Democrats holding (hopefully) 56 seats, they have more power to do that without damaging things too much. It isn’t like when there was the 50-50 splits and the party had to genuflect before Sinema and Manchin to beg them to vote correctly.

      Hopefully, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party will do the right thing and replace this idiot when he comes up for reelection in 2028.

  • Heikki2@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    The 2 leading causes of conservatism are vast wealth and brain damage. This is an example of the later

  • Bilb!@lemmy.ml
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    9 hours ago

    It would be sooooooooo good to hear that he succumbed to despair and killed himself.

  • Folstar@lemmus.org
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    10 hours ago

    Fetterman left the party a while ago, back around the brain damage. The weakness of the party has kept him around.

    It will be interesting to see how the Dems manage the new rotation. With ~55 votes in the Senate they will need multiple ‘villains of the week’. Sort of how the GOP the last two years has had to keep the ‘sane person of the week’ to a minimum on account of thin majorities and keeping Trump happy.

  • DudleyMason@lemmy.ml
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    10 hours ago

    So the new designated villain has been chosen. The next two years of Dems selling out their voters, fellating their donors, and managing the genocide will be blamed on Fetterman. Seems a little on the nose, but ok.