Fetterman Skipped Veterans' Meeting for Fox News Israel Interview, WSJ Investigation Finds

In June, three veterans traveled to Washington to meet Sen. John Fetterman about improvements to their care. He told staff he was too sick to attend. Less than an hour later, according to the Wall Street Journal, he appeared on Fox News to discuss Israel's war with Iran. His staffers had already met the veterans in his place.

The episode is one of several documented in a Journal investigation, drawn from former staff members, Pennsylvania lawmakers, internal records, and text messages, describing a pattern in which Fetterman prioritizes Israel advocacy over the basic mechanics of representing his state.

The reporting describes Fetterman refusing to meet Pennsylvania state lawmaker Liz Hanbidge, opting instead for a sit-down with basketball coach and Israel advocate Bruce Pearl. It describes him ignoring a delegation of constituents who traveled to Washington with state lawmaker Anthony Hardy Williams. It describes him skipping Senate committee hearings and rarely appearing in public within his own state.

Fetterman has told colleagues his allegiance to Israel is close to absolute.

"If our party ever becomes... the anti-Israel party, you know, that's when I would leave."

The remark, aimed at his own Democratic Party, came as progressive Democrats and genocide scholars have increasingly described Israel's conduct in Gaza, where the death toll has passed 70,000 since October 2023, as genocide, a characterization Israel also faces at the International Court of Justice.

Embassy coordination

According to the Journal, a senior Fetterman staffer tried to talk him out of introducing a resolution that would have forced every senator to publicly state whether they consider Israel's war on Gaza a genocide. Fetterman dropped the idea. Instead, Israeli ambassador Yechiel Leiter suggested he write an op-ed defending Israel and sent over talking points for it. Fetterman initially agreed to draft the piece using the ambassador's material. His staff later refused to pass the embassy's points along to him, citing concerns under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which governs disclosure requirements for anyone acting on behalf of a foreign government's interests inside the United States. The op-ed was eventually dropped.

The Journal also reports Fetterman was angered when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer passed him over for a seat on the Foreign Relations Committee, a body with direct jurisdiction over foreign aid and arms sales, including to Israel.

Fetterman has denied any plan to leave the Democratic Party for the Republicans, where his approval ratings currently run higher than among Democratic voters. He has not disputed the specific incidents reported by the Journal.