Progressives say John Fetterman has abandoned them. But he says he hasn’t changed.

WASHINGTON — New year, new John Fetterman? Depends who you’re talking to.

The Pennsylvania Democrat’s denunciation of the progressive label and ardent defense of Israel in its war against Hamas has some conservatives commending him and progressives who helped him get elected feeling deserted.

But the latest attention surrounding Fetterman says less about his political ideology — he’d been distancing himself from progressives for several years and has long been vocal in his support for Israel — and more about the persistent spotlight aimed at the freshman senator and how his often-brash style feeds it. He’ll likely continue to be a focal point as other unexpected issues he’s spoken out on, like border security, become center to the chamber’s debate this year.

“Even before the primary I was like, ‘I’m not a progressive.’ It’s just strange why people want to ignore that. It’s not new news,” he said in an interview at the Capitol Tuesday.

Fetterman self-identified as a progressive frequently in the past, but in his 2022 Senate race to win swing-state Pennsylvania he often said he was “just a Democrat.”

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, he’s become one of the most vocal legislators defending Israel but he’s also gone a step further, openly criticizing pro-Palestinian cease-fire activists, some of whom also identify with the larger progressive movement. Pro-Palestinian protesters have called him “Genocide John” and a group of former campaign staffers wrote a letter in October imploring him to support a cease-fire.

“John’s always had this quality to him that people see in him what they want to see,” said Larry Ceisler, a public affairs consultant and longtime Pennsylvania political observer. “I think that was his strength but for some of those people who assumed, ‘he is fully in our club,’ obviously he’s not.”

“And I gotta believe that the anger he is evoking, it’s making him dig in even more,” Ceisler said. “That’s just his personality.”

A lot has changed in a year. Fetterman missed the start of his term in treatment for depression, a dark period when he considered whether he could even remain in office. He starts his second year as a national figure, publicly talking about mental health, his views on Gaza, progressivism, and Sen. Bob Menendez’ corruption charges. And now some conservative critics have become fans and progressive allies, critics.

“It’s weird to see this transition, because I find myself every single week retweeting something that Fetterman has said,” Fox and Friends host Lawrence Jones said last month.

Progressive leaders in the party have mostly avoided criticizing Fetterman directly but some cautioned against alienating people who are calling for a cease-fire.

U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, declined to talk specifically about Fetterman but argued that calling for a cease-fire is not a progressive issue but a humanitarian one that touches more voters than she thinks her party realizes. Some polling shows lawmaker support for a cease-fire lags behind growing public support for one.

“I think it’s a really dangerous gamble to just imagine that those people — who are not just Palestinian, not just Black voters, not just progressive voters, but a critical piece of our coalition, will just get over something without any work without any engagement without any support,” said Lee, a Democrat who represents Pittsburgh. “I think it’s disingenuous, and it does a disservice. And I’m not saying that that’s what’s happening right now. I’m cautioning against that route.”

Fetterman acknowledges he embraced the progressive descriptor in the past but noted many of the issues he was fighting for are now more mainstream.

“Things that were considered more shocking like $15 an hour (minimum wage) and healthcare as a basic fundamental right, legalizing marijuana, they’re just not as big of a deal today,” he said.

But even some allies wish that the blunt Fetterman would take a more measured tone when it comes to disagreeing with protesters.

“It’s not wrong for progressives on the left side of the spectrum to feel upset when the guy they worked so hard for is dismissing them so casually,” one Democratic operative who did not want to be quoted criticizing Fetterman said.

Fetterman has dismissed progressive backlash as coming from a small vocal few.

“I don’t think it’s bold to say I stand with Israel.”

His stance on Israel, in particular, is the same as most Democrats in the Senate and a recent survey from Quinnipiac University shows his speaking out about it increased his popularity among Pennsylvania voters.

Fetterman has also called for Democrats to pursue stricter immigration laws as a way to achieve consensus with Republicans on funding for Israel and Ukraine. He hasn’t specified what concessions he would accept on immigration but did say he would not support getting rid of “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants who come to the U.S. as children, as his wife did.

“I can’t really understand why anybody would be upset for being a supporter of Israel or thinking that it’s important that we have a secured border,” Fetterman said. “I’m still incredibly supportive of immigration, especially given my wife’s family origin story.”

Taken together, Fetterman seems in line with the majority of Pennsylvania voters, said Mike Mikus, who ran a 2016 Senate primary race against Fetterman and pointed out that he was elected in 2022 with strong support from moderate Democrats in rural counties.

“In real life, people... sometimes have positions that are contradictory. Before he actually said the words ‘I’m not a progressive,’ progressives just assumed he was progressive on every single issue.”

Bob Casey, the senior senator from Pennsylvania, has a nearly identical stance to Fetterman on Israel but a much more muted style. Casey gets far less attention on the topic, despite being in the midst of a reelection year and facing some backlash of his own.

A motorcade of protesters passed by his home a few weeks ago.

“And some people I know around the state, they’ve registered their perspective,” Casey said. “It’s just the nature of the debate but we’ve got to make sure we do everything we can to destroy a terrorist organization.”

Fetterman, who has displayed photos of Israeli hostages still missing in Gaza outside of his office at the Capitol, has received praise from some Republicans and from pro-Israel groups for his opposition to a cease-fire in Gaza.

After he spoke this week at a luncheon on Capitol Hill hosted by the Orthodox Union, several conservatives retweeted his comments, including Donald Trump Jr.

“How is it possible that John Fetterman in the last few months has seemingly become more based than half of the senate GOP???” the former president’s son wrote on X.

But Fetterman’s more dismissive tone toward protesters seeking a cease-fire has upset some allies.

“If you think it’s productive to block a road or a bridge or whatever, that’s not gonna change anyone’s minds,” Fetterman said of protesters Tuesday. “If you’re gonna protest anything you should be protesting Hamas and that they release the hostages immediately.”

He appeared to wave an Israeli flag at pro-Palestinian protesters outside of the Capitol in November. He said those who blame Israel for the war were getting their “perspective on the world on TikTok, it’s going to tend to be kinda warped.”

Marta Guttenberg, a 76-year-old from Center City, worked on Fetterman’s campaign through her involvement with an interfaith group. Now a member of the group Jewish Voice for Peace, which has protested outside Fetterman’s offices, she frequently calls in as a constituent to press him to back a cease-fire.

“I’m sort of embarrassed to be talking about the horse race of politicians when the unfathomable amount of death and suffering is happening,” she said of the war in Gaza. “But I do feel betrayed.”

Asked if he’s concerned the war could be an issue that alienates a part of the Democratic coalition, Fetterman said he hoped Democrats would see the stakes for democracy in 2024.

“Anybody that would turn their back on Biden…why don’t you just write a check for Trump then? Stay home. Vote for some rando third party person. Then you are helping Trump. Get your red hat.”