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john fetterman
Fetterman Joins GOP to Kill War Powers Resolution Against Trump's Extrajudicial Venezuela Bombings
Sen. Rand Paul, one of just two Republicans to vote for the resolution, said he thinks Trump's illegal strikes on boats and threats to attack Venezuela "might lead to regime change."
Oct 09, 2025
With Democratic Sen. John Fetterman joining Republicans in opposing a measure to rein in President Donald Trump's ability to unilaterally bomb ships in the Caribbean Sea, the US Senate narrowly failed to advance a war powers resolution Wednesday.
Since the beginning of September, Trump has conducted four strikes on vessels off the coast of Venezuela which the administration has alleged, with little evidence, are carrying "narco-terrorists" spiriting illegal drugs to the United States.
Trump has also deployed thousands of sailors and marines to the Venezuelan coast and is reportedly considering strikes on the Venezuelan mainland, which has stoked fears within the country and across Latin America of another regime-change war.
In a quote to Responsible Statecraft, John Ramming Chappell, an advocacy and legal fellow at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, said that even if the ships attacked by Trump do contain drug-runners, the strikes carried out by Trump have been "summary executions and extrajudicial killings" that are "manifestly illegal under both US and international law."
But by a 51-48 vote, largely along party lines, the Senate opted not to discharge a resolution introduced by Sens. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) from the Foreign Relations Committee that would have halted Trump's ability to carry out more strikes without congressional approval.
"The president has used our military to strike unknown targets on at least four occasions, and he is promising more," Schiff said in his speech introducing the resolution on the Senate floor. "With at least 21 people dead, and more killing on the way, with the president telling us that strikes on land-based targets may be next, we ask you to join us and reassert Congress' vital control over the war power."
Kaine added: "Americans want fewer wars—not more—and our Constitution clearly grants Congress alone the power to declare one. Yet President Trump has repeatedly launched illegal military strikes in the Caribbean and has refused to provide Congress with basic information about who was killed, why the strikes were necessary, and why a standard interdiction operation wasn't conducted."
Two Republican senators, Rand Paul (Ky.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), joined Democrats in voting to advance the resolution.
Paul, a libertarian who is typically more skeptical of foreign interventions than others in the GOP, has been an outspoken critic of Trump's assertion of unchecked authority to bomb ships and the lack of evidence provided.
He previously sparred with Vice President JD Vance online after Vance said, "I don't give a shit" that striking unarmed civilians without due process is a "war crime" under international law.
On the Senate floor, Paul said: "Perhaps those in charge of deciding whom to kill might let us know their names, present proof of their guilt, show evidence of their crimes... Is it too much to ask to know the names of those we kill before we kill them?"
Paul previously said in an interview with Bloomberg: "I think it might lead to regime change. And some of the more skeptical among us think that maybe this is a provocation to lead to real regime change, a provocation to get the Venezuelans to react so we can then insert the military."
Murkowski added: "We all want to get rid of the drugs in this country, absolutely. But the approach that the administration is taking is new, some would say novel, and I think we have a role here."
Even with two Republican defectors, it was not enough for the resolution to advance, especially with an assist from Fetterman (Pa.), the Democratic Party's leading war hawk, who joined Republicans in voting the motion down.
It's the second time in a matter of months that he's voted against imposing a congressional check on Trump's ability to carry out acts of war. In June, he was also the lone Democrat to vote against a Senate resolution to require congressional approval for future strikes against Iran, even as the president made regime change threats.
Nick Field, a correspondent for the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, noted that "voting against a war powers resolution seeking to curb Trump's executive powers" was "not how John Fetterman campaigned in 2022, 2018, or 2016," when he acted as a strident opponent of everything Trump stood for.
Fetterman has not publicly commented on his decision to vote against the resolution. His office did not respond to a request for comment from Common Dreams.
Despite the vote's failure, Schiff said it likely will not be the last attempt to limit Trump's war-making authority. Similar resolutions were introduced late last month in the House of Representatives by Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Jason Crow (D-Col.).
"Sadly, as these strikes get worse, support will only grow for another War Powers Resolution to stop them," Schiff said. "Let's hope by then we are not in a full-fledged war."
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Fetterman Once Agreed ICE Was an 'American Gestapo.' Under Trump 2.0, He's Praising the Agency
As ICE has sent masked agents to round up mostly innocent people, the Democratic senator from Pennsylvania said they "are just doing their job."
Jul 11, 2025
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman's strange lurch to the right continued this week as he jumped in to defend Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid criticisms about its lawless and authoritarian behavior.
ICE's indiscriminate roundups have shifted into overdrive recently as part of President Donald Trump's "mass deportation" crusade, resulting in video after disturbing video of unidentified masked agents brutalizing and detaining migrants, the majority of whom have no criminal records.
On Thursday, ICE launched another massive raid on two farms in Southern California, which was met with protests by hundreds of community members. Federal officers responded by beating protesters and assaulting them with tear gas, including children.
Many Democrats have at least criticized the agency's unprecedented tactics. Last month, Democratic House members introduced the "No Secret Police Act," which would require agents to identify themselves when arresting people. Many also criticized the agency's aggressive display on Thursday.
But not Fetterman (D-Penn.), who issued a full-throated defense of the agency in a post on X.
"ICE performs an important job for our country," Fetterman said. "Any calls to abolish ICE are 💯 inappropriate and outrageous."
Earlier in the week, after an ICE detention facility was allegedly ambushed by armed attackers, Fetterman told Fox News that it was "absolutely unacceptable. Terrible. Awful."
"ICE agents are just doing their job, and I fully support that," he added. "For me and people in my party, you know, to abolish it or treat them as criminals or anything, that's inappropriate and outrageous. ICE performs an important, an important job for our nation."
These comments drew the attention of Trump, who praised what he called "the new John Fetterman."
"He's right, he's right," the president said of the Pennsylvania Democrat.
Fetterman responded with glee, telling The Daily Mail that getting praise from Trump made his Fox News-watching parents "proud."
Critics have noted the stark change in rhetoric for Fetterman, who once embraced various progressive policies and campaigned fiercely against Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Nick Field, a writer for The Penn-Capital Star, posted an excerpt from an interview in 2018 in which Fetterman—then the mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania—agreed with a host who said ICE was "an American Gestapo."
"I agree," Fetterman said. "It's unconscionable. I don't know how they sleep at night. I really don't."
"These are all law-abiding citizens," Fetterman said about undocumented immigrants rounded up by ICE. "These are people that want a better life for themselves, and in the process, a better life and a more rich society for us all. And to try to demonize them or try to turn them into some kind of problem, that this is what's wrong with America, it's evil."
Others pointed out that Fetterman's own wife, Gisele, was herself an undocumented immigrant from Brazil. She's now a U.S. citizen.
Annie Wu Henry, who ran the social media accounts for Fetterman's 2022 Senate run, and has since apologized for her involvement in his election, posted a campaign video in which he spoke about his wife's immigration status.
"I was asked, 'Your wife's family broke the law, what do you think of that?'" Fetterman said in the video. "I said, 'Well I'm so grateful that they did because if they didn't have the courage to take that step I wouldn't have the three beautiful children that I have today.'"
Fetterman also drew the ire of his opponent in the 2022 Democratic primary, former Rep. Connor Lamb (D-Penn.). When they faced off three years ago, Lamb was ironically considered the more conservative of the two. But on Thursday, he lit into Fetterman, who called for ICE to "round up and deport the criminals."
According to immigration data from June 29, 71% of the people currently in ICE detention have not been convicted of any crimes. Most of those who have were only convicted of minor offenses, like traffic violations.
"Hey [Senator Fetterman], they didn't give ICE more money than the Marine Corps and all other law enforcement to just go after criminals," Lamb retorted, referring to the massive increases to ICE funding in the GOP's recent megabill. "You aren't fooling us into thinking that is what's going on."
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'Unfit for Office'? Fetterman's Fitness Questioned Amid Reports of Erratic Behavior
"We can agree or disagree on Fetterman's politics," wrote one journalist, "but I don't see how anyone can look at what's happening on a human level... and not think that the best thing for him would be to resign."
May 08, 2025
Following reporting about the behavior of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman—including concerns voiced by current and former staff have concerns about the mental wellbeing of the Democratic lawmaker from Pennsylvania—a growing number of political observers are openly questioning his ability to serve in public office.
A story in New York Magazine last week featuring the concern by staff was followed by new Associated Press reporting Thursday, which recounted a recent meeting between Fetterman and representatives from a teachers union that went awry when Fetterman began shouting and asking why "everybody is mad at me."
"Why does everyone hate me, what did I ever do," Fetterman reportedly said, according to someone who was briefed on what had taken place, the AP reported. A staff member ended the meeting and ushered the visitors out, and then broke down crying in the hallway.
Fetterman bested Mehmet Oz, the current head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, in a race for the U.S. Senate in 2022, despite suffering a stroke while on the campaign trail. In 2023, after being sworn into the Senate, Fetterman checked himself into the hospital to seek treatment for clinical depression, and drew praise for being open about his diagnosis and seeking care.
His standing among progressive supporters has also soured over the past year and a half in part due to his unwavering support for Israel during the country's deadly military campaign in Gaza.
Fetterman was also the only senate Democrat to fly down to Mar-a-Lago and meet with U.S. President Donald Trump following Trump's victory in 2024.
Jeet Heer, the national affairs correspondent for The Nation, reacted to the AP's reporting with expressions of concern and suggested it may be time for the Democrat to step aside.
"We can agree or disagree on Fetterman's politics (I'm not a fan of his shift)," wrote Heer, "but I don't see how anyone can look at what's happening on a human level, to this man and his family, and not think that the best thing for him would be to resign so he can look after himself better."
According to New York Magazine, 14 months after Fetterman's discharge from the hospital, his former chief of staff Adam Jentleson, sent a long email to the medical director who had overseen Fetterman's care, writing that he thought Fetterman was on a "bad trajectory" and sharing concerns that if nothing changed, Fetterman "won't be with us for much longer."
In the email, Jentleson said he was concerned that Fetterman appeared not to be taking his meds, that he was displaying megalomania and conspiratorial thinking, "lying in ways that are painfully, awkwardly obvious to everyone in the room," and engaging in "repetitive and self centered monologues."
To the medical director, Jentleson also detailed that Fetterman had purchased a gun, engaged in a pattern of self isolation, and that he drove his car recklessly to the point that staff would not ride in the car with him.
"Former and current staffers paint a picture of an erratic senator who has become almost impossible to work for and whose mental-health situation is more serious and complicated than previously reported," the magazine reported.
"Jesus," wrote Aaron Regunberg, a progressive policy advocate wrote on social media in response to the reporting," John Fetterman should not be a U.S. Senator."
Jonathan Cohn, another progressive activist, commented on his personal X account that Fetterman was "creating an unsafe environment for his staff and constituents, and that makes him unfit for office."
On Tuesday, speaking to CNN, Fetterman called the article in New York Magazine a "one-source hit piece, and it involved maybe two or three and anonymous disgruntled staffers saying just absolute false things."
Few Democrats have come to Fetterman's aid in the wake of the reporting. There's been increased private talks about primary challenges to Fetterman, per Politico, and according to the outlet "some Pennsylvania Democrats have begun to quietly review the rules about what would happen if he stepped down and whispered about potential replacements."
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