U.S. Sen. John Fetterman called President Joe Biden’s threat to withhold military aid to Israel “deeply disappointing,” the latest criticism he has levied at the president over his handling of the war in Gaza.
On Wednesday, Biden announced on CNN that he would halt some shipments of bombs and artillery into Israel if the country invaded the city of Rafah.
Fetterman, a Democratic senator from Braddock, reposted the news on the social media platform X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Hard disagree and deeply disappointing,” the senator said.
It comes a day after Fetterman went on Fox News and more softly criticized the Biden administration’s caution toward supplying arms should there be an invasion.
“He’s been very supportive of Israel, but I don’t agree with him on everything. For example … I don’t think we should be withholding any munitions and I think we should be sending them immediately,” Fetterman said. “Israel is in this kind of war; I have no conditions, I never have, and I can’t imagine I ever will.”
Fetterman has built a reputation for telling it as he sees it but criticism of a vulnerable president up for reelection by one of his party’s own senators in a swing state is still somewhat rare.
Fetterman has been the most outspoken Democratic advocate for Israel in the Senate, a position that’s angered some progressives in his party who saw him as aligning with their movement, including those who want to see a cease-fire in the conflict.
In Biden’s interview on Wednesday, he acknowledged that some American weapons were used to kill civilians in Gaza and said that he would halt some shipments of American weapons to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a major invasion of the city of Rafah, Hamas’ last major stronghold in Gaza.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett, referring to 2,000-pound bombs that Biden paused shipments of last week.
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities — that deal with that problem,” Biden said.
