John Fetterman Attacks Joe Biden on Fox News

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman criticized President Joe Biden for pausing a shipment of arms to Israel.

The Biden administration halted a shipment of thousands of bombs to Israel last week amid concerns over its plan to launch a full-scale assault on the southern Gazan city of Rafah, several outlets reported on Tuesday.

"Israel should not launch a major ground operation in Rafah, where more than a million people are sheltering with nowhere else to go," an unnamed senior administration official told The Washington Post.

It is the first known instance of a pause in U.S. military aid to Israel since Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, which killed more than 1,200 people. In the months since, the U.S. had accelerated the transfer of weapons to its ally even as Israel's offensive in Gaza has left much of it in ruins and more than 34,000 Palestinians killed, according to the Associated Press.

In an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday, Fetterman, a Democrat who is a vocal supporter of Israel's actions in Gaza, said he doesn't agree that the U.S. should withhold arms from Israel or impose any conditions on its ally.

Biden has been "very supportive about Israel, but I don't agree with him on everything," Fetterman said. "Like, for example, I was public, and I said that I don't think we should be withholding any kind of munitions, and I think, I said, I think we need to send them immediately... Israel is in this kind of a war, and we, I have no conditions, I never have, and I can't imagine I ever will."

Fetterman went on to say: "If there should be any kind of conditions, it should be on Hamas and its [enablers] and its benefactors." That comment was mocked on social media since the U.S. doesn't provide military assistance to Hamas.

When asked if he supported Israel going into Rafah, Fetterman said: "I follow Israel on that. I mean, they would know the situation more than I do."

Fetterman spokesperson Carrie Adams told Newsweek that Fetterman has been "very clear that he fully supports President Biden — he's in fact wearing a Florida Democratic Party hoodie in that interview — he got it over the weekend where he rallied Florida Democrats in support of the president."

She said his "main message was that we can disagree on some politics and policy in this big tent party, but we can't disagree on who to vote for in the fall, that we've got to support Biden."

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email.

Fetterman's decision to appear on a conservative network to criticize Biden comes after he slammed other Democrats for publicly criticizing the president in an interview on MSNBC in February, saying it would help Donald Trump in November's election. Those remarks came after Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib urged voters to withhold support for Biden in her state's primary election over his response to Israel's war in Gaza.

"If you're not willing to just support the president now, and say these kinds of things, you might as well just get your MAGA hat because you now are helping Trump with this," Fetterman said at the time.

Fetterman went on Fox News "to address their millions of viewers — many of them Pennsylvanians," Adams said.

His February MSNBC interview highlights "his strong support of the President," she added. "Healthy democracies thrive on disagreement. What we can't disagree on is democracy itself, and that's what's on the ballot in the fall."

Fetterman's unwavering support for Israel has shocked some who previously supported him and set him apart from his Democrat colleagues, many of whom have sought to strike a balance between supporting Israel and condemning the rising Palestinian death toll in Gaza.

He has also criticized the pro-Palestinian protests that have rocked college campuses across the country in recent weeks. Demonstrators have been calling on universities to cut financial ties with Israel and divest from companies profiting from the war in Gaza.

The protests could pose a challenge to Biden's reelection effort, as polling has shown that many young voters are critical of the president's Israel policy.

But despite the strain on Biden's relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel's move to invade Rafah, Biden on Tuesday said his support for Israel is "ironclad even when we disagree."

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, "Two things can be true at once" when asked to square the U.S.'s expressions of support for the safety of Palestinian civilians in Gaza with the ongoing provision of arms to Israel.

"Israel has a right and a responsibility to defend itself, and we're going to continue to provide for their security and help them with that," she said on Monday. "And at the same time, they have a right and obligation to be careful about civilian casualties and getting more humanitarian assistance in."

Update 5/8/24, 7:42 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comments from a Fetterman spokesperson.