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A new exposé on conservative Democrat Sen. John Fetterman (Pennsylvania) has revealed that he has been abdicating almost all of his Senate duties in favor of taking opportunities to advocate for Israel — and that, in fact, Israel is his top priority.
The Wall Street Journal, citing former staffers, found that Fetterman has been ignoring and lying to constituents to avoid meetings, dismissing issues in his state, and even figured out a strategy to be marked as “present” at committee hearings while only staying for a minute or less.
Instead, “behind closed doors, the first-term senator shows little interest in doing the job beyond cultivating relationships with conservative media figures and advocating for Israel,” the paper reported.
Several times in recent months, he’s blown off meetings with people from Pennsylvania, pretending to be unavailable and then talking to pro-Israel figures instead.
In April, he agreed to take a meeting with Pennsylvania state Rep. Liz Hanbidge (D) to discuss programs to help those experiencing homelessness and poverty in her county. But, when Hanbidge drove to D.C. to meet with him, Fetterman refused to talk to her. That same day, he instead took a meeting with Bruce Pearl, a conservative ex-college basketball coach who appeared at 76 pro-Israel events in the first six months of this year.
Then, in June, Fetterman told staff that he had to cancel a meeting with three paralyzed military veterans from Pennsylvania who travelled to D.C. to discuss legislation for better veterans’ care. He told his staff that he ate something bad and wasn’t feeling well.
But less than an hour after cancelling on the veterans, he arrived in his office and announced to staff that he had “an appointment he didn’t want to miss,” the Journal reported. He needed to go on Fox News to advocate for Israel and discuss the war on Iran. Indeed, Fetterman appeared on Fox several times in June to back Israel and criticize fellow Democrats; speaking to Fox host Mark Levin on June 14, Fetterman praised the bravery of Israeli troops and denigrated pro-Palestine protesters as “idiots.”
“One of the supreme honors of my time in the Senate is standing with Israel,” he said.
Fetterman has previously faced scrutiny after similar reports have found that he is ignoring his Senate duties. His frequent advocacy for Israel and other conservative priorities like Trump’s war on Iran has made him extremely unpopular among his constituents and his fellow Democrats — except for, seemingly, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York), who told WSJ that Fetterman is “an important member of our caucus” in response to the reporting.
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The few proactive actions that Fetterman has taken in recent months have been to advance Israel’s interests.
Last year, his staff tried to talk him out of introducing a resolution that would force every senator on the record over whether or not Israel’s assault on Gaza constituted a genocide. As an alternative, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, met with Fetterman to suggest that he write an op-ed about his support for Israel.
Fetterman agreed — but asked Leiter to send over talking points for him to include in the article. Fetterman’s staff then withheld Leiter’s drafted talking points from him for fear of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The op-ed never appeared.
Later, Fetterman was also furious when Democratic leaders passed over him for a seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — which was a tall ask for a second-year senator. Seemingly in retaliation, he refused to participate in Democrats’ events, saying once when asked to attend a meeting: “I truly don’t care.”
When it comes to anything else, Fetterman is dismissive. Last year, Fetterman told an aide over text that representatives from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia only wanted to meet with him because they “just want free trips to DC.”
This was in response to an aide telling him that the children’s hospital officials wanted to meet with him over concerns regarding the millions of children cut from Medicaid under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, signed into law that summer.
At the time, Fetterman had complained about having to be present to vote against the bill because he wanted to be on vacation.
“Oh my god, I just want to go home. I’ve already — I missed our entire trip to the beach,” he said in June 2025, as Republicans worked to pass a bill that cut roughly 14 million people from their health coverage and 4 million from food assistance.
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