Fetterman Chides Media for Not Demanding Iran Supreme Leader Proof-of-Life, Mocks Regime With Weekend at Bernie’s Jab

Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) chided the media for not demanding that Iran provide proof that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei remains among the living after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reported Khamenei was injured in strikes.

The remarks come after Iranian clerics appointed Khamenei, who was preceded by the recently assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the regime’s new supreme leader. In the intervening week, Iranian authorities have offered no proof that Khamenei’s son is alive since he took over.

A statement was broadcast on Iranian state television on Thursday, with a presenter reading the message over a still image of the cleric. According to the message, Iran intends to keep pressure on a key global shipping route. It stated that the Strait of Hormuz must remain closed and warned that additional fronts could be opened if the conflict escalates.

The Democratic senator appeared on Fox Business Monday morning to chat with anchor Maria Bartiromo after the U.S. offered a $10 million reward for information on Khamenei. Fetterman mocked the Iranians, likening the idea of the missing in action leader to the 1990 comedy Weekend at Bernie’s, in which two business employees attempt to pass their deceased boss as alive and well so they can party in the Hamptons:

I largely agree with what the president said that Iran has essentially been defeated, and why don’t the western medias just demand that Iran provide proof of life of the ayatollah because I think the Iranians are doing like a ‘Weekend at Ayatollahs’ – and they’re trying to pretend this guy is functional or even alive at this point, and I think we called them out and realize that they’re a nation that’s been effectively defeated and they don’t have leadership, they’re unwilling to even provide proof to refute that.

Reflecting on President Donald Trump’s demand that allies help “police” the Strait of Hormuz, to secure the key shipping route that Iranian counterstrikes have cut off, Fetterman added: “Overall I think entirely appropriate to remind the world that if you want their oil, you need to help us to reopen the straits.”

Watch above via Fox Business.

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