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John Fetterman knows his fellow Democrats are not happy with his Iran war powers votes. They might stand a better chance winning over a few more Republicans than flipping him.
The Pennsylvania Democrat is unbowed by the intraparty criticism of his votes against ceasing the war — a position that last week proved decisive.
He told Semafor Senate Democrats know he’s “pretty much locked and loaded on my views on that” and that no one in the caucus has tried to flip his vote.
“Something like this is much more important than just voting what your base might demand. Because I think things are much bigger and more important than that. And Iran with a nuclear bomb is one of those things,” Fetterman said.
“I’m very much aware how damaging it is as a Democrat to hold these views. I had 20 Code Pink dopes in my office” on Thursday, he said’.
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Fetterman’s “no” vote last week was the difference in killing Democrats’ war powers resolution due to the surprise absence of Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb. The measure barely failed to advance in a 49-50 vote. Similarly, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, voted against his party last week on a House war powers measure. The vote ended in a tie.
Democrats in both chambers are vowing to press on and Republican defections are gradually growing in each chamber. Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, for example, flipped her vote because she doesn’t see how the president’s claims of a ceasefire with Iran square with reality. “You just can’t say hostilities have ended because we hit 60 days and you let everything just continue as it were without any further reporting to Congress,” she told Semafor.
Still, in both chambers, only three Republicans apiece have voted with Democrats. If Senate Democrats could stay united it would mean that even with full attendance, one more GOP defection would be enough to at least advance a war powers resolution to the floor.
Fetterman said that Iran has been an enemy of the US for decades and the war has only been going for a bit over two months: He said “of course we would like this to get resolved but the problem remains because Iran refuses to relinquish their nuclear material.” And with that as his primary goal, Fetterman didn’t say there would come a point when his vote might flip.
“Why don’t we want to just make sure Iran just can’t build a nuclear bomb? That’s what it’s really about, right? It’s not an extreme view,” Fetterman said. “People would want to blame America for this situation. Why can’t we blame Iran and other nations like Russia and even China that are supporting Iran?”