Fetterman: ‘Iran must be so excited by the American media and the Democratic Party’

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.)  is criticizing fellow Democrats and the media for not showing more support for military operations against Iran, quipping that “Iran must be so excited” that the Democratic Party and leading media outlets are putting pressure on President Trump to cease hostilities as soon as possible.

“It’s almost as if, you know, we’ve forgotten on the Democratic side that the real enemy, the real threat, the real danger is Iran and … proxies too,” Fetterman told Fox News in an interview Wednesday evening.

He said constant Democratic criticism of Trump’s military operations against Iran is giving the Iranian regime hope that if it can withstand missile strikes and a U.S. naval blockade of its ports for a few more weeks, Trump will be forced by political pressure to pull back.

“You know, Iran must be so excited by the American media and the Democratic Party the way they, it’s like, as long as we can hang on for 60 days, more and more people continue to vote against, you know, the Trump Administration to end the Iranian regime,” he said.

Fetterman said he doesn’t understand how members of his party can be so critical of Trump’s efforts to destroy Iran’s nuclear enrichment program when many Democrats agree with the policy objective of stopping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

“And so, why can we be this close and allow them to acquire nuclear bomb? So, that’s my real concern,” he said.

Senate Democrats have stepped up their pressure on Trump to end the war, forcing a vote for a fifth time Wednesday on a resolution under the 1973 War Powers Act directing Trump to withdraw U.S. troops from the conflict with Iran.

Fetterman was the only Democrat to vote against the resolution.

The Pennsylvania senator recently called the Democratic Party’s response to the conflict “very disappointing” and expressed disbelief over the statements of some Democrats who he said appear to be “rooting” for Iran because of their strong dislike of Trump and his policies.

“It seems like people are almost rooting for Iran. It’s crazy,” Fetterman told video journalist Nicholas Ballasy in a recent interview. “So my party has been very disappointing, the way they’ve chosen to respond.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) came under attack from Republicans for reposting on social media a report that 26 ships had slipped through the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and commenting: “Awesome.”

Murphy pushed back on critics who claimed he appeared to be rooting for Iran by explaining the comment was sarcastic.

“Ok Twitter, I can’t believe I need to clarify this but obviously Trump’s bungled mismanagement of this war is not ‘awesome,’” he wrote in a separate social media post. “As I have said a million times here, it’s a disaster and he should end the war immediately. My tweet was something called ‘sarcasm.’”

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