PHILADELPHIA – Republicans are using Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-PA) outspoken support for Israel to paint his Pennsylvania colleague, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), as weak on the war in Gaza as he runs for a fourth term in the Senate.
The two Democrats share a pro-Israel stance at odds with the left flank of their party. Both have stood by the country as it mounts a casualty-heavy war to root out Hamas. Neither has called for a ceasefire or conditions on its military operations in Gaza.
But there is a difference between them. Casey cuts a lower profile in the Senate, on Israel and virtually every other topic. Meanwhile, Fetterman has become synonymous with support for the Jewish state with loud shows of solidarity.
Outside his office, Fetterman hung pictures of the hostages taken by Hamas in their Oct. 7 rampage through Israel and memorably draped himself in the Israeli flag in the weeks following the attack. More recently, he’s mocked the pro-Palestinian encampments cropping up at universities across the country as “pup tents for Hamas.”
The gestures of support, in conflict with the increasingly hard line President Joe Biden has taken on Israel, have endeared Fetterman to Republicans and are part of a larger political rebrand. Fetterman developed a reputation as a progressive on the campaign trail and has since tacked to the right on issues like immigration.
But his leave-no-doubt approach to defending Israel has implications beyond his own career. It has given Republicans a benchmark to compare Casey against.
And by that metric, they’re telling Pennsylvania voters that Casey has fallen short.
“I applaud the moral clarity that Sen. Fetterman has as it relates to the antisemitism, the hate for Jews, that we’re seeing spread across campuses, his moral clarity on condemning what Joe Biden is doing,” said Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the chairman of Senate Republicans’ campaign arm.
“It’s a refreshing contrast to virtually every other Democrat right now, including Sen. Casey,” he added.
The compliment is not unique to Daines. Dave McCormick, the Republican challenging Casey in the fall, has been calling the contrast “extremely notable” for months.
“You never wonder where John Fetterman stands,” he told the Washington Examiner in a Tuesday interview.
Casey, who has the support of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, has shown some willingness to criticize the war. He’s encouraged Israel to “do more” to allow humanitarian relief into Gaza, whereas Fetterman has been unequivocal in blaming Hamas for the Palestinian plight.
Otherwise, Casey has staked out largely the same positions as Fetterman. Last week, Casey went to the Senate floor to denounce the spike in antisemitism at college campuses and urged his colleagues to pass a bill he sponsored to crack down on it.
He also called the University of Pennsylvania’s decision to take down a protest encampment the “right decision” on Friday, citing the disruption it was causing students.
Some of the discrepancy comes down to the speed and force with which Fetterman offers his views on Israel.
Casey opposes the Biden administration’s decision to pause ammunition shipments to Israel, but Fetterman has blared his objections. On Tuesday, Fetterman appeared on Fox News to disagree with the policy.
When Biden announced the next day he would withhold artillery shells and bombs if Israel invades Rafah, Fetterman wasted no time posting his “deep disappointment.”
That distinction has created an impression Republicans have readily seized upon.
“Silence is complicity, and this is a time for a full-throated condemnation,” said Daines. “It doesn’t matter if you’re Republican or Democrat, as evidenced by Sen. Fetterman. He’s not afraid to speak up, and he’s on the right side of history.”
Fetterman wants no part in the comparison. Ironically, he is a reliable booster for Casey and regularly lobs insults at McCormick, who narrowly lost the Senate GOP primary to challenge Fetterman in 2022.
When asked about McCormick’s habit of complimenting him on Israel, Fetterman rejected the praise with a tongue-in-cheek reference to Connecticut, where McCormick spent years managing the hedge fund Blackwater.
McCormick was born and raised in the Pittsburgh area and bought a house in Pennsylvania to run for Senate in 2022.
“Well, I went to graduate school in his home state, so I can only have good things to say about him, too,” Fetterman said of his MBA from the University of Connecticut. “We have a special bond over Connecticut.”
The Casey campaign responded to the comparison by accusing McCormick, a West Point graduate and former Bush administration official, of drawing attention away from the foreign ties of his former hedge fund.
“David McCormick and his out-of-state billionaire backers are trying to distract from his record of making millions putting the interests of our adversaries ahead of what’s good for America,” said spokeswoman Maddy McDaniel, noting Bridgewater’s investments in Chinese manufacturers of military equipment.
The complimentary words for Fetterman are just one part of a broader critique of Casey. McCormick has cited everything from the Iran nuclear deal to Casey’s endorsement of Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA), an outspoken critic of the war in Gaza, to portray him as someone who wears support for Israel with hesitation.
Casey voted for the 2015 nuclear deal, seen by Republicans as a capitulation to Israel’s regional foe, but has simultaneously supported additional sanctions. On Lee, he maintains his support but notes the two “clearly” do not agree on “every issue.”
“If you’re really objective about it, and go back through Bob Casey’s track record, I think you’ll see him answering very little and when he does, it’s late and only when pressed,” McCormick said. “He’s not a leader. He’s not willing to get out there and shape the future, and that’s what we need right now.”
Democrats call the line of attack manufactured and “unfair.”
“That’s how they run their campaigns,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who chairs Senate Democrats’ campaign arm.
But the November election will test its efficacy as a political wedge. The sense that Democrats are abandoning Israel could have ripple effects in Pennsylvania, home to large Jewish populations around Philadelphia and Pittsburgh that traditionally vote Democratic, not to mention its possible impact at the top of the ticket.
Republicans have argued that Biden’s threat to withhold military aid undermines what the president has called his “ironclad” commitment to Israel.
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McCormick said the issue “transcends” the Jewish vote, tying it into what he described as a vacuum of leadership in the Democratic Party.
“I think many Americans, probably most Americans, see what’s happening on our campuses and are repulsed by it, see what happened on Oct. 7 and are repulsed by it,” he said. “It’s the byproduct of weakness, appeasement, and a lack of moral clarity.”
