US Senator Fetterman 'shuns congressional duties', courts Israel

US Senator John Fetterman would prefer to defend Israel than meet with constituents, according to a new report detailing the lawmaker's attitude toward his role.

Fetterman refuses to meet constituents, lawmakers from his home state of Pennsylvania, regularly skips Senate committee hearings, and rarely makes public in-state appearances, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing former staff members and lawmakers, records and text messages.

On several occasions, Fetterman has shunned meetings in DC, including one instance with three veteran constituents in June who were supposed to discuss improvements to their care, instead being interviewed on Fox News about Israel and the war on Iran.

He told staffers that he was ill, only to turn up less than an hour later after his staffers met with his constituents, saying he didn’t want to miss the interview.

Fetterman refused to meet Pennsylvania state lawmaker Liz Hanbidge, preferring to meet basketball coach and Israel advocate Bruce Pearl.

A key supporter of Israel in the Democratic Party, his position has seen him clash with progressive members of the party who are increasingly critical of the state following its illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories and war on Gaza that, since it broke out in October 2023, has killed over 70,000 Palestinians.

Though he has denied that he’s considering defecting to the Republican Party, where he holds higher approval ratings compared to democrat voters, he said that only if the party becomes anti-Israel would he consider switching: “If our party ever becomes… the anti-Israel party, you know, that’s when I would leave.”

His support for Israel, alongside his attitude to his congressional duties, has led him to clash with aides, with a senior staffer attempting to talk him out of introducing a resolution forcing all senators to publicly state whether they view Israel’s war on Gaza as a genocide – something that many progressive democrats, as well as genocide scholars, have accepted. Israel also stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Instead, Israeli ambassador Yechiel Leiter suggested he write an op-ed explaining his support for Israel, with Fetterman saying he would write the submission based on points the ambassador sent over.

His staffers later agreed not to share with him the Israeli embassy’s points on account of potentially violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. He later dropped the issue.

Other incidents the report highlighted were purposefully ignoring a group of constituents that went to DC with state lawmaker Anthony Hardy Williams, as well as being furious with top Democrat in the Senate Chuck Schumer over being passed over for a position in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.