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.”

    • akilou@sh.itjust.works
      24·
      3 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?

      • SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world
        14·
        3 days 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@lemmy.world
          7·
          3 days 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.

      • foodandart@lemmy.zip
        19·
        3 days ago

        He was a lot less insufferable before the stroke.

        Brain injuries absolutely DO change people.

        • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
          6·
          3 days 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”.

        • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
          11·
          3 days ago

          Unfortunately he wasn’t. He was a dick before the stroke he just had an incredible campaign/PR team that managed to successfully spin him as a progressive. I learned about him summarized in this video

          23 minutes in i get Ahmaud Arbery vibes when he pulled a gun on a complete stranger.

  • dotCody@lemmy.world
    6·
    3 days ago

    What a fuckin 180 this douche canoe did. Must have been that cameo in the Christian bale movie.

    • archonet@lemy.lolEnglish
      9·
      3 days ago

      I choose to blame the stroke.

      Actual, factual brain damage is no joke, and there was a reason he won the election he was in. He was genuinely not insane/traitorous before his stroke.

      The more cynical option is that he was always like this and merely wanted to screw over the leftists of Pennsylvania by running under a D ticket, but frankly I think brain damage from stroke leading to sudden onset fascist sympathies is both more likely (brain damage can have really fucking weird effects) and way funnier in a certain context

      • bus_factor@lemmy.world
        91·
        3 days ago

        I’ve seen comments claiming to be from his local area saying he was always a bit like this. I don’t think he ran a particularly leftist campaign, though, he just looked leftist compared to Dr. Oz.

        I don’t think Fetterman was a full bait and switch like that snake Kyrsten Sinema.

        • archonet@lemy.lolEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          I am so goddamn tired of having to vote for the least awful choice instead of even a decent choice. Compared to the literal snake oil sales king of TV, almost anyone else looks good – but we can see how that’s worked out.

          • bus_factor@lemmy.world
            1·
            2 days ago

            The way the Republicans got to the position they are today was to focus on local races and the judiciary. Leftists have until recently thought that as long as they win the presidency everything is a-ok, but that is clearly not the case.

            Pay attention to the local races, especially the primaries so the good candidates make it to the general election, and if possible run yourself, and there is a chance to turn it around. But it will take a decade or two of hard work to turn it around, assuming we get to keep having elections

            As soon as actually progressive candidates have enough people in the legislature to have a Tea Party-like pull, you’ll start seeing some improvement. The hard part is getting there.

      • DaMummy@hilariouschaos.comEnglish
        4·
        3 days ago

        Pure accident that he changed to a Israel flag waving douche after getting his golden pager after a hospital visit.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    171·
    3 days 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…

    • GuyIncognito@lemmy.ca
      2·
      2 days ago

      I once had an idea that it would be funny if Trump got hit on the head and turned woke: We’re gonna add so many genders your head’s gonna spin. You’ll say, “Donald, there’s too many genders, we can’t keep track of them all!” Too bad, we just added 10 more genders

    • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
      71·
      3 days ago

      He had a helluva PR campaign to reform his image. I believed it at first until i finally found a video of someone giving a rundown of his background and his actions began making a lot more sense. Suffice to say i’ve found him to be an extreme disappointment but because i wasn’t in his district and therefore voting for him I never dug into his history or background.

      • qarbone@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        3 days ago

        That same video is what revealed what a shithead he is.

        I should keep it saved to share.

  • Maeve@kbin.earth
    1·
    3 days ago

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