Sen. John Fetterman, the battleground state Democrat known for bucking his party, praised President Donald Trump’s policies in the Middle East on Monday.
During The Senate Project series discussion, organized by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate and the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation and co-hosted by FOX Nation, Fetterman and his fellow Pennsylvanian Sen. Dave McCormick, a Republican, discussed key issues impacting Americans.
Conflict in the Middle East was chief among those topics, as the bipartisan senators have found unlikely common ground in their support for Israel. Fetterman admitted he is the sole Democrat willing to admit Trump’s success in the Middle East.
“I wasn’t really allowed to disagree, politically, with the original agreement on Iran,” Fetterman said.
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Trump ended U.S. participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran and re-imposed sanctions against them in 2018. As a Democrat, Fetterman said it was politically unpopular to support Trump backing out of the Iran deal.
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Fetterman, now abandoning the Democratic playbook, admitted on Monday, “I really do think, now, Trump did the right thing to break that agreement.”
Fetterman told The Washington Free Beacon in April that the Trump administration should destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities with a military strike. The event’s moderator, Fox News’ Shannon Bream, anchor of “Fox News Sunday,” asked Fetterman about his comments during the Boston, Massachusetts, event on Monday.
“Iran attacked Israel, and it’s very clear they lack the capabilities to really project that kind of––and then Israel struck back and destroyed the batteries that protect their nuclear facilities, and they also hit the nuclear lab as well, too. So now, Israel understands that we have a window here to attack that.”
The Pennsylvania Democrat said his party isn’t willing to engage in these nuanced conversations about the United States’ approach to conflict in the Middle East.
“I think it’s once in a generation to destroy that facility,” Fetterman said, doubling down on his comments.
Fetterman also praised Trump for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during his first administration.
“That’s absolutely put me really the only one left in the Democratic caucus talking on these kinds of things,” Fetterman said, referring to his support for moving the embassy.
“When Trump changed the embassy to Jerusalem, people thought… the region was going to burn. I mean, none of that happened… Some good things have happened there,” Fetterman said.
Fetterman was the only Democratic senator willing to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago ahead of his inauguration and has been steadfast in his support for Israel, one of several instances of Fetterman bucking his own party.
