John Fetterman attacks Joe Biden on Fox News

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman criticized President Joe Biden for suspending an arms shipment to Israel.

As multiple media outlets reported Tuesday, the Biden administration stopped a shipment of thousands of bombs to Israel last week amid concerns about its plan to launch a full-scale attack on the southern Gaza town of Rafah.

“Israel should not launch a major ground operation in Rafah, where more than a million people are seeking refuge and have nowhere else to go,” an unnamed senior government official said The Washington Post.

It is the first known case of a disruption in U.S. military aid to Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people. In the months since, the United States has accelerated arms transfers to its ally, even as Israel’s offensive in Gaza left much of it in ruins and killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to the Associated Press.

In an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday, Fetterman, a Democrat who has been a vocal supporter of Israel’s actions in Gaza, said he did not agree that the U.S. should withhold weapons from Israel or impose any conditions on its ally.

Biden “has been very supportive of Israel, but I don’t agree with him on all points,” Fetterman said. “For example, I was public and said that I don’t think we should withhold any kind of ammunition, and I said, I think we have to send them immediately…Israel is in this.” Some kind of war, and we, me have no strings attached, I never have and I can’t imagine I ever will.

Fetterman continued: “If there were to be any conditions, it would be to Hamas and their (enablers) and their benefactors.” This comment was mocked on social media as the US does not provide military aid to Hamas.

Asked whether he supported Israel’s invasion of Rafah, Fetterman said: “I can follow Israel on that. I mean, they know the situation better than I do.”

Fetterman spokeswoman Carrie Adams said Newsweek that Fetterman “has made it very clear that he fully supports President Biden — he’s actually wearing a Florida Democratic Party hoodie in this interview — that’s what he got over the weekend when he mobilized Florida Democrats in support of the president .”

She said his “main message is that in this big tent party we can disagree on some policy issues, but we can’t agree on who to vote for in the fall, that we have to support Biden.”

Newsweek emailed the White House seeking comment.

Fetterman’s decision to appear on a conservative network to criticize Biden came after he criticized other Democrats for publicly criticizing the president in an interview on MSNBC in February, saying it would hurt Donald Trump in the election November help. Those comments came after Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan urged voters not to support Biden in her state’s primary because of his response to Israel’s war in Gaza.

“If you’re not willing to just support the president right now and say things like that, you might as well get your MAGA hat out because you’re helping Trump do it now,” Fetterman said at the time.

Fetterman went to Fox News “to address their millions of viewers — many of them from Pennsylvania,” Adams said.

His MSNBC interview in February underscored “his strong support of the president,” she added. “Healthy democracies thrive on disagreement. What we cannot agree on is democracy itself, and that is what will be on the ballot in the fall.”

Fetterman’s unwavering support for Israel has shocked some who had previously supported him and distinguished him from his Democratic colleagues, many of whom have tried to strike a balance between supporting Israel and condemning the rising Palestinian death toll in Gaza.

He also criticized the pro-Palestinian protests that have rocked college campuses across the country in recent weeks. Protesters called on universities to cut their financial ties with Israel and divest from companies that profited from the war in Gaza.

The protests could pose a challenge to Biden’s re-election efforts as polls have shown 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 invasion of Rafah, Biden said Tuesday his support for Israel is “ironclad, even when we disagree.”

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “Two things can be true at the same time” when asked to reconcile US expressions of support for the safety of Palestinian civilians in Gaza with the ongoing arms supply to Israel.

“Israel has the right and duty to defend itself, and we will continue to ensure its security and assist it in doing so,” she said Monday. “At the same time, they have the right and obligation to be cautious about civilian casualties and to provide more humanitarian assistance.”

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