Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) harbors views on Israel that are so unusual in his own party that “there are even people on his current staff who think he is wrong,” Peter Savodnik wrote in The Free Press on Sunday.
After Savodnik concluded his interview with the pro-Israel senator, Carrie Adams, Fetterman’s communications director, called him to say, “‘I don’t agree with him’ about Israel and Gaza,” Savodnik wrote.
Adams added, “I have a sense that his international views are a lot less nuanced than my generation, because when he was growing up, it was might makes right, and for my generation and younger who, of course, are the ones protesting this, they have a much more nuanced view of the region,” per the Free Press.
“I’ve been a reporter since the summer of 1998, when I covered Bill Clinton’s trip to Martha’s Vineyard for the Vineyard Gazette,” Savodnik wrote. “This was the first time I’d ever encountered anyone—on Capitol Hill or anywhere else, on the record, off the record, on background, whatever—criticizing ‘the principal.'”
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), who is also one of the Jewish state’s staunchest supporters in Congress, wrote that “if I had a staffer who publicly challenged my position on an issue like Israel, that staffer would be fired in a heartbeat.”
“In every congressional office, there is only one name on the door—only one principal voted into office by the people,” Torres wrote. “If you cannot get with program, then you should no longer be part of the program.”
Adams has since changed the settings on a social media account to make it less public and only visible to those whom she approves.
Fetterman told Savodnik that he was skipping the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week because his kids are off school, and he wants to spend time with them.
