With lawmakers slated to decide whether to rein in President Donald Trump’s military operations in Iran, most Democrats have rallied behind the measure.
But Fetterman, who is breaking from his party to support the U.S.’s military strikes over the weekend, will join most Senate Republicans to oppose Tuesday’s war powers vote, a resolution that he’s called “empty sloganeering.” And he’s needling fellow Democrats who won’t follow suit.
“Every member in the U.S. Senate agrees we cannot allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon,” Fetterman wrote on X. “I’m baffled why so many are unwilling to support the only action to achieve that.”
In both chambers, the bipartisan measure seems likely to fail. But prominent Democrats are still blasting Fetterman for being a “hard no.”
“Well, John Fetterman knows better,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNN on Monday. “Article I of the Constitution explicitly provides Congress with the authority to declare war. Period, full stop.”
Meanwhile, progressives like Graham Platner and Saikat Chakrabarti said that any lawmaker who adopts Fetterman’s approach “should lose their seat. “
“A man who has never seen war and never will,” Platner wrote of Fetterman.
Fetterman has shown willingness to break with his party on this issue. He already struck down a similar war powers vote in June, after the U.S. launched airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. His status as something of a GOP ally has earned him occasional plaudits from across the aisle. (“Amen, brother,” Ted Cruz chimed in on X, in response to Fetterman’s post about the war powers vote.)
Despite speculation that Republicans are trying to pull Fetterman closer to their preferred policy positions, Fetterman still refers to himself as a “committed Democrat” — albeit one with some words of praise for Trump.
“I might be a Democrat, but in this specific case, the president is absolutely correct to do these kinds of actions, and now we have Israel’s back,” he told “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Saturday.
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