Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said he's receiving similar amounts of wrath from both sides of the political aisle since breaking with the progressive wing of his own party.
Fetterman made the remarks in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday.
"What I have found out over the last couple years is that the right, and now the left, are hoping that I die," Fetterman told the Times. "There are ones that are rooting for another blood clot. They have both now been wishing that I die."
Fetterman suffered a near-fatal stroke during his campaign in May 2022.
Fetterman said if his pro-Israel, anti-cease-fire position means he's not a progressive anymore, then so be it. The same goes with his views on border security.
"I don't think it's unreasonable to have a secured border," Fetterman said. "I would never put 'dreamers' in harm's way or support any kind of cruelty or mass expulsion of hundreds of thousands of people. But it's a reasonable conversation to talk about the border."
But reasonable is something the far left is not, he's finding. Fetterman said he rejects the "purity tests" that progressives like to flaunt despite ideals and policies that Fetterman still has in common with them.
"I'm not critical if someone is a progressive," he told the Times. "I believe different things."
Fetterman ran on a progressive platform, closely aligned with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in 2016, dubbing himself and Sanders as "progressive champions." Being pro-Israel apparently wasn't a problem for progressives then, but it is now after the attacks in Israel on Oct. 7.
"I just think I'm a Democrat that is very committed to choice and other things, but with Israel, I'm going to be on the right side of that," Fetterman told NBC News last week. "And immigration is something near and dear to me, and I think we do have to effectively address it as well."
Fetterman has been subjected to social media slams, being heckled at public events, and blowback from 16 former campaign staffers accusing him of "betrayal."
"I do find it confusing where the very left progressives in America don't seem to want to support really the only progressive nation in the region that really embraces the same kind of values I would expect we would want as a society," Fetterman told the Times.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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