Hamas is convinced they've won the 'PR war': Sen. John Fetterman

We’ve seen a ferocious surge of anti-Semitism in America and around the world. Vicious propaganda on social media. We know hate never goes the way it only hides and given a little oxygen, comes out from under the rocks. We also know what stops hate. One thing all of U.S. President Biden at a Holocaust event today giving a speech. Tonight we’re going to talk about that. We’re also going to talk about other issues and hear from one of Capitol Hill’s most outspoken voices. Pennsylvania Democrat Senator John Federman joins us now. Senator, thanks for coming in. It’s great to be here. Yeah. President gave a speech today. He was largely credited for being pretty clear in his message. Some of his critics said it was a little late. What did you make of that speech? I I don’t. I mean I I thought it was. I thought it was a great speech and and he’s been very supportive about Israel. But I I don’t agree with him on everything. Like for example I I was public and I said that I don’t think we should be withholding any kind of munitions. And I think I I said I think we need to send them immediately. You know of course Israel is in in this kind of a war and you know we, I have no conditions. I never have and I can’t imagine I ever will. Do you think the US support for Israel? He said today it was ironclad but if they are slow walking these arms sales how can you say both things. Yeah well like I said I I I do think the president has has stood with with Israel but but you know we have disagreed on issues like that and like that for today. I was I was very popular today that I said look we we really need to send them you know if anyone if there should be any kind of conditions it should be on Hamas and it’s ablers and it’s benefactors. Do you support Israel going into Rafa? Well I I follow Israel on that. I mean, they would know that the situation more than I do. And I’m always trying to center this to people where it’s like Hamas could, well, they started this. They did this kinds of terrible things and this could end right now if they send all those hostages back home and they could surrender and all of the, you know, but they clearly don’t care about all the Palestinian death and chaos and and damage. And in fact, that’s the way they design that. Israel actually cares about minimizing those civilian deaths, but Hamas sees that as just their own kinds of collateral damage. You’ve also been outspoken on these college campus protests. And what do you feel about them when you see them and does it make you upset? How do you react to them? Well, it doesn’t. It’s like, I don’t know why they seem to. I’m not even sure what they’re really you know, protesting about. If you ask them, they’re not really sure they can’t you know and now they’re not talking about cease fires anymore and now they’re talking about divesting and harming Israel on that. It’s it’s crazy and they they really just broke the mold yesterday when they were now had they had protesters at Auschwitz yesterday, then the Holocaust, the two mile walk thing. I mean like how much more tasteless and and and disgusting that could be. They showed up with that and as I said this, that it’s actually working against peace in Gaza. And Hamas is convinced that they’ve won the PR war and they keep seeing all these kinds of protests across the nation on these campuses. And it’s it’s not helpful, but it’s actually works against peace, I think. Does it bother you that some of the people funding some of these protests are also some of the president’s biggest donors? Well, I I don’t really, I don’t really care who’s funding it. It’s just like, but it’s the Jewish Voice for Peace. And the other ones, they try to pretend that they’re like some gruesome grassroots kind of thing. And it’s not, you know, they’re they’re paid. And and I have said this, I don’t care if you’re a protester, paid or not. You know if you’ve got to protest anything, you should be protesting against Hamas and demanding that they take the the the ceasefire or they can just send all these hostages back home. And if if then that that’s very clear. They they’ve been showing up in my office in Philadelphia back in I think October and it’s not it’s not grass roots it’s it’s just paid kinds of agitation. What is your thought about what should be done on these college campuses it should the police be called in. There have been incidents where, for example here in Washington DC, where they called for help and they they turned it down. Honestly I I was reading my, I can’t call them my, my former colleague but in a Senator Sasse from Nebraska. You know he’s Florida. And I thought he, I thought I thought he was right on point on that. It’s like you know we can have protesters we can have a space to allow that, but you can’t you can’t take over. You know we’re we’re not going to listen to or respond to or let the fringe or the kind of the the loudest kinds of voices to respond on that. And it’s like you know you can’t have damage. You can’t spit on cops. You can’t be allowed to to stop you know things from happening and and I thought that’s exactly how it should should be. I mean it’s it’s a very much an American value to protest and and free speech. But what you have manifested on the campuses now is not that here is Michael Moore political activist filmmaker take a listen. You do have the right to take over the administration building. I’ll tell you, just speaking from Flint, we would have no UAW, no auto Workers Union if back in the 30s, the auto workers, including my uncle, had not taken over the factories. Yes, you have to take over buildings. That is not violence. What do you make of that? Yeah. No, I, I, I it’s really you can’t compare what’s going on right now because there’s really not you know they’re they use things around colonizing and things like that. It’s just it’s just it doesn’t make any sense and Israel represents the kind of values that that you know in America and it’s like we should be able to to defend the Israeli way of life. And we can’t ever forget they are the ones that started this and they’re the ones that broke that ceasefire and they did the most terrible things to babies, children, women, tortured, mutilating, systemic rape. And and I don’t understand why it’s undeniable that that anti-Semitism is often at the center of a lot of this protesting. And the speech that now is out there and now fee meta or Facebook is now well is is river to the sea, you know. Well of course that’s that’s calling for the destruction of Israel and of course that’s hate speech and it shouldn’t be platformed by anything. This is one of the outspoken things you talk about. You’ve also pushed back on your party on immigration. You’ve also pushed back on a number of different issues on the progressive side, Philadelphia magazine says. Is this the John Federman Pennsylvania elected? The one time oddity, however, unexpectedly finds himself smack in the middle of America’s political and cultural mainstream. About the best analogy I can think of for Federman is that of an underground band from the 1980s that somehow finds itself scoring hit singles and Grammy nods A decade later and not because the band changed because the culture did. So what is it did you change an office or has the party changed? No, I I’ve always been that that that way. I mean my wife was a was a a former Dreamer and immigration I think is is a is a superpower of our nation. I think it’s helped made our nations very special but but I don’t know why it was controversial that we have to have a secured border and then when you start to examine some of the numbers that are showing up at the border the 270, three 100,000 people and I would put that in the in for perspective for Pennsylvania that that’s the size of Pittsburgh a month and it’s like how can you take care of them. How can you give them an American dream when that and and we need to get her get a hold of that and and that’s why I said that after the the deal came through that I’ve wanted to get. I want to have that conversation and I want to sign on more things as well. And you know in my prime in my primary Title 42 wasn’t controversial. All those kinds of things that it wasn’t controversial, you know those are the kinds of things to be addressed to the situation and and you can be very pro, pro immigration but also we need a secure border and we need to respond to the the circumstances. But do you think you’ve evolved you you said in December I’m not a progressive. Then prior to that, you know in the election you touted progressive bona fides and you’ve said progressive movement is here in Pennsylvania and you’ve, you know, proud to be here with Bernie Sanders. I’m a progressive Democrat. Well, the progressives might not say that they see you more as a Joe Manchin figure. Is that fair? Well, that that was that was back in 2016. And I’ve been saying it for years that that that that label that label left me in that I didn’t. I don’t recognize that at all. And I’m not a mansion kind of of figure. I’m just a a regular Democrat. That that is I I want to be honest and and I don’t understand, I haven’t really thought anything that I’ve said is really controversial standing and leaning in with our critical ally in Israel and being very pro immigration but also realizing that we have to have a secured border and protesting and free speech is a very valid American right but not the way it’s manifested itself its way on the on the campus. So are you comfortable with all these Republicans praising you including Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania? Well, I I mean, I we all have to get along. I mean, I mean everyone that spent time in DC, you know, we have to, we have to work together and there’s some things we can agree there’s some things that we can’t. And if we can work together then I I would do and I’m always happy to lean on that. So in in Pennsylvania, your state, if you look at our latest battleground polls on the economy, former President Trump is really up big on President Biden when it comes to the economy alone, who do you trust on the economy? Why is that? How do you see that and how do you see the election playing out in November? Yeah, well, I I don’t, I don’t really follow the the apt polls. But but you know, I’ve been having that kind of a conversation now since 2016. You know, I identified that there is a risk here that Trump can actually win and most people didn’t thought that it was going to be a joke. And and I’m like, no, no, it’s I spent too much time in across the state and I realized that something is happening. And then I had that conversation in 2020 that that, you know some of those polls had Biden up at 5 points. And I’m like you can’t, you know, have 25,000 people show up at an event and that’s not a five point race And now 24. It’s going to be very competitive. It’s going to be close. Always has been, always will be. And I do believe Joe Biden is going to win. But anyone that takes Trump seriously do that at their own peril. And he has a very He has a connection in Pennsylvania, and we have to make sure that we do whatever we can. But so you see this trial up in New York today, He’s out saying it’s all falling apart. You know, if you look at polls and I know you don’t look at polls, there are a lot of people who look at that trial and say it may not be fair to him. How do you see it and how do you see the former president positioned for the election? Well, I mean, like I’m a sitting, I’m a sitting senator and I’m truthfully not even exactly sure what he’s, what his trials are about, how many of them, whatever. I mean, I I think, I think it’s, you know, most voters in Pennsylvania agrees that it’s a very stark choice as well. And so if I’m not following it that closely, I don’t think a lot of the voters there and and they’re going to, you know, in six months from now, they’re going to have the chance to vote. And I do believe Joe Biden is going to prevail in Pennsylvania. And I do believe that Pennsylvania does pick the the president, but it’s going to be very close and it’s going to be incredibly competitive. And I’m not really sure that most of people’s perceptions of Trump and all the things that are going on in the trial are are already baked into that stock price. Last question, Pennsylvania liquid natural gas fracking, it’s a big deal. Energy’s big business there. You sent out a statement that if this pause on LNG is a problem, you may try to push to turn it over. Yeah, sure. No, yeah. I didn’t agree with the president on the his choice on LNG. And of course, fracking is, is important and I’m very much very pro energy security and and energy security is national security. But I do not believe it’s going to be a defining issue in Pennsylvania. Just like I said in 2020, it’s going to come down to that very, very stark choice here, Trump or Biden, what you want, what you want the next four years to be like. And when people show up to the to to vote, I mean it’s going to be more of a gut kind of a situation more than thinking, well, what’s about, you know, fracking and whatever. Well, Senator Fairman, we appreciate the time. Thanks for coming in live. Would love to have you back. No, it’s great to be here. Thank you.