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.”

  • James R Kirk@startrek.website
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    5 days 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”

    Edited for accuracy!

    • Glide@lemmy.ca
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      6 days 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@lemmy.world
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      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.

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    5 days ago

    Does anyone on any side think this brain-damaged flip-flopper has anything important to say?

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    If the Democrats were a functioning opposition party, they would have forced Fetterman out when his staffers started reporting his erratic behavior. But Chuck Schumer needs Senators to, “go against him,” and thwart any legitimate opposition the party can muster, so we let this brain damaged, mentally ill man occupy one of fhe highest positions of power in the nation.

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      It is, indeed.

      FFS, even saying a “dozen dozens“ would be underselling the actual death toll of that particular war crime.

      The world honestly would be a (slightly) better place if that stroke was just a smidge more fatal…

    • akilou@sh.itjust.works
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      6 days ago

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

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        He was a lot less insufferable before the stroke.

        Brain injuries absolutely DO change people.

        • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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          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”.

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        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@lemmy.world
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          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.

  • AreaSIX @lemmy.zip
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    Fetterman, Randy Fine, Trump, Lindsey Graham, Rubio, Ted Cruz. It’s amazing to think about how his gallery of absolute revolting ghouls have all received the majority of votes in an election in the US. The American public have preferred these freaks to whatever was the alternative.

    I don’t know how the US can be salvaged. At the minimum, a massive portion of the country needs to be sent to reeducation camps.

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    5 days ago

    This guy has been a major disappointment, but I want to remind everyone, that if Fetterman had t won his election, we’d be listening to Dr Oz run his fraud mouth.

    Guys like Manchin and Sinema and Fetterman piss us off, but they contribute to the Democratic seat count, which is really really close right now. In past close party counts, sometimes the majority is only because of a DINO. They may not vote how we’d like, as much as we like, but their registration as Dem means that Dems control the chamber, the investigations, the legislation, etc.

    So while he’s a pain in the ass, he still has value to the party. Right now, the MAGA majority in the House is so thin, that if only one more Republican resigns effective immediately, the majority will swing to the Dems, BEFORE THE MIDTERMS EVEN HAPPEN.

    If I were the Dems, I’d be offering huge rewards to any Republican willing to retire immediately. Want a cushy, high paying gig with a lobbying firm? We can make that happen. MAGA will scream, but who cares? That’s always entertaining anyway.

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      I guess but isn’t Dr. Oz just in a different position within the trump administration now?

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      This is all very true. I just wish we had enough margin for error w/o jagoffs like this.

      I remember SNL summing up this problem in a way that was razor sharp when they had the person playing Sinema saying she (paraphrasing) “wanted to watch the world burn”.

      That just nailed it. Sinema was so obviously an incredibly selfish person and felt just so entitled. Same with Manchin. (Hey you guys! He wrote a book called “Dead Center”! LOL, I’ve seen him interviewed on it, and he really does seem to believe this notion of centrism, and that it’s somewhere between the radically extremist party that the Republicans are as contrasted with the only moderately right wing Democratic Party. I’d love to know what the “centrist” position is between, say, extreme renditioning all brown people in the United States vs. you know, not doing that?)

  • NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net
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    5 days ago

    WHICH ONE OF THE SIX SCHOOL BOMBING STRIKES IN IRAN, FETTERMAN? WHICH FUCKING ONE DOESN’T DESERVE INVESTIGATION?