Sen. John Fetterman has spent months warning the Democratic Party has an antisemitism problem.
Now he’s on the verge of quitting the Democrats for good.
On Fox News’ Hannity Wednesday night, the Pennsylvania senator said the Democratic Party is approaching his red line, and the socialist wave now sweeping Democratic primaries has him ready to quit.
“My real concern is the Democratic Party is going to put it into the platform, you know, as an anti-Israel party, that Israel does not have the right to defend itself and to exist,” Fetterman told Sean Hannity. “And the second that becomes a formal part of our platform, that’s the one thing that would push me out of this party.”
“I’m deeply alarmed by the way the Democratic Party is going after Israel and allowing just rank anti-semitism to just flourish, you know, on the left and on the campuses too,” Fetterman said.
The comments came less than 48 hours after democratic socialist Melat Kiros ousted a 15-term Democratic incumbent in Colorado on a platform that included ending all U.S. military aid to Israel and refusing to condemn the Hamas massacre on October 7.
Kiros joins a growing list of radical DSA-backed candidates, including newly elected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who have made antisemitism a centerpiece of their campaigns.
Fetterman said the one thing the new generation of radical Leftists had in common was “contempt for Israel” that was “essentially” a dog whistle for antisemitism.
It is a fight Fetterman has been waging alone inside his own party for months. In April, he told Fox News’ Life, Liberty & Levin that a deep fracture had opened between him and his Senate colleagues.
“There’s been a fracturing between me and my party,” he said. “Primarily it’s been Israel.” He was the only Democrat to vote against multiple War Powers Resolutions aimed at restricting Trump’s military authority over Iran, and the only Democrat to support Operation Epic Fury, the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign that struck Iran’s nuclear sites.
He has watched antisemitism consume Democrats without consequence. In May, after pro-Hamas mobs attacked police outside synagogues in New York City, Fetterman went to X and asked publicly: “Where’s my party’s condemnation?” He called out Democratic primary candidates who had praised Hamas on social media years earlier and said his party was becoming “more and more hostile to Israel.”
For now, Fetterman isn’t going anywhere. He votes with his party more than 90% of the time and has repeatedly insisted he has no intention of switching sides. But his red line is now on the table, and the party is approaching it.
Radical, socialist candidates are winning. Kiros will almost certainly be sworn into the House next January. Mamdani is New York City’s mayor. And even more extreme candidates already running in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Fetterman gave his party a warning Wednesday night.
Whether anyone in it is still listening to him is another question entirely.