The Pennsylvania senator dismissed the demand for further investigation as “moot.”

Senator John Fetterman appeared not to understand why Democrats want to investigate the deadly strike that killed dozens of Iranian children.

During an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Wednesday night, Fetterman was asked to explain why he hadn’t signed onto a letter from Senate Democrats that questioned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the February 28 strike on Shajarah Tayyebeh, a girls’ primary school miles from Tehran. The strike killed 175 people, many of them young girls.

“Well, because we all agree that it’s a tragedy having the school hit, and we all agree now for an investigation,” Fetterman said. “What I don’t agree with the rest of my colleagues in the House is that it’s a war of choice, or it’s dumb, or all the things my colleagues have described, you know, this operation. I think it’s a good thing, and I support that.”

Fetterman was referring to a line in the letter describing Donald Trump’s military campaign as “a war of choice without Congressional authorization.” The letter did not describe the war as “dumb.”

  • CharlesDarwinEnglish
    10·
    2 hours ago

    When it comes to Fetterman, I wonder how many people get brain damage and suddenly become more progressive instead of regressive?

    I know some people say this is who they suspect he always was, but…

  • James R Kirk@startrek.websiteEnglish
    911·
    5 hours ago

    The headline is misquoting him, the full quote is:

    “Well, because we all agree that it’s a tragedy having the school hit, and we all agree now for an investigation,” Fetterman said. “What I don’t agree with the rest of my colleagues in the House is that it’s a war of choice, or it’s dumb, or all the things my colleagues have described, you know, this operation. I think it’s a good thing, and I support that.”

    Still glaringly stupid, but the headline makes it seem like he’s in denial it happened. He didn’t say the words “leftist” or “craze”

    • Glide@lemmy.ca
      15·
      3 hours ago

      Appreciate this.

      Trump’s political supporters say and do enough batshit, immoral things that we don’t need to be lying just to make our points.

    • DarkCloud
      3·
      2 hours ago

      He did say the word “leftist”. He doesn’t say crazed, but he does say:

      “The Leftist media seem more angry and talking about the deaths of these dead school girls than they were about Iran killing tens of thousands of their own young people a couple of weeks ago”

      The clip is here: https://x.com/Acyn/status/2031906677365358825

      All I did was search the rest of the article for the term “leftist” notice it was used, then goto the link the New Republic provided. The question the interviewer is posing is why did all the Senate Democrats signed a letter condemning the US action in Iran except for John Fetterman.

      • DarkCloud
        1·
        2 hours ago

        They don’t want to give the full quote where he does use the term “leftist” (but not craze) - PROBABLY because they don’t want to platform Fetterman’s idea that the media should be doing criticism of other countries actions as much as the American governments actions.

        …a point that doesn’t really make sense, because the fourth estate in democractic countries are supposed to cover criticism of their own governments more than others.

  • theprogressivist
    34·
    5 hours ago

    Motherfucker should have just been a Trumper. He’s as stupid as everyone else in the administration and would fit right in.

    • akilou@sh.itjust.works
      13·
      4 hours ago

      Looking back, it’s like what the fuck, it was this guy or Dr Oz? Like did Pennsylvania even actually have a choice?

      • foodandart@lemmy.zip
        11·
        3 hours ago

        He was a lot less insufferable before the stroke.

        Brain injuries absolutely DO change people.

        • Lost_My_Mind
          1·
          2 hours ago

          There’s a fan theory about the show King of the Hill.

          I think it was season 2 that Peggy Hill went sky diving. The parachute doesn’t open, and she seeminly falls to her death. Except then you find out that she survived, and is now in a full body cast.

          Fans noticed that before those events she wasn’t very aggressive, or stuborn, or stupid. But after the fall, those are the traits that would define her character going forward.

          The theory is, the brain damage from the fall changed her. And thats a good in show way of saying “the writers hadn’t found her personality yet”.

      • SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world
        7·
        3 hours ago

        They blame the stroke he had just before the 2024 primary for his personality change, but there were clues that this was really him all along. Another excuse I’ve seen which I find slightly more believable (but only because the groundwork for it was already there) is that he became highly dependent upon social media - and thereby more radicalized - after his stroke prevented him from communicating normally.

        • MerryJaneDoe
          5·
          3 hours ago

          His “brain injury” was indeed caused by a stroke. It was the stroke of a pen, signing off on that big, fat check that someone gave him in exchange for his vote.

  • cmbabul
    151·
    5 hours ago

    Shame that stroke didn’t finish the job

  • Lucky_777
    4·
    4 hours ago

    Had a friend get a bottle cracked across his head, then robbed. Suffered brain damage but survived.

    He was a totally different person after. Left his wife and kids he loved for asian femboys to marry. Started substance abuse and total lost all his drive. Dude was highly respected in his field, graduated from Michigan and made damn good money.

    All erased after the injury. So I can believe Fettermen changing his whole mindset after the damage. Can’t wait till he is out of government

  • Maeve@kbin.earth
    1·
    3 hours ago

    This is an extremely poignant comment and it’s too bad trying to upvoter it gives me a 500 error.