John Fetterman Visits Fox to Give the GOP Advice On How to Keep the Senate

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) joined Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo on Tuesday morning and offered some surprise electoral advice for how the GOP could keep the U.S. Senate in the midterms.

Bartiromo began the interview by asking about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) recent call for the U.S. to end military aid to Israel.

Fetterman criticized Ocasio-Cortez’s position, saying, “You know, I’ve consistently—that’s part of the rot in the Democratic Party. You know why? If you have to pick a side, why would you pick the side or defend Hamas or defend Iran in a way? For me, stand with Israel. I’ll never vote for any kinds of restrictions on aid, whether it’s military, financial, or intelligence. There are ever to be any restrictions on that. And now, for here we are, we can have peace. Again, that’s become part of the serious problem in our party.”

Bartiromo followed up, “So are the Democrats standing in the way? Extremists like AOC—are they standing in the way of peace in the Middle East then?”

Fetterman replied, “Well, I’m saying I refuse to pander to the part of my Democratic Party that finds that there’s value in being anti-Israel. And that’s effectively—they use the word “anti-Zionism”—I mean, effectively what that’s really become on college campuses and places is just anti-Semitism. We have a problem here in our party, and I’m going to stand against that and always be an unapologetic supporter for Israel.”

Bartiromo then pivoted to the 2026 midterms, “And I think all of this will be in the president’s State of the Union address coming up in one week’s time. And of course, then we’re all in on watching the midterm elections.”

“You’ve predicted that the Democrats could regain control of the House and narrow an already very thin—razor-thin lead in the House—in the majority in the Senate. Why is that? Do you not think that some of these issues are resonating with people?” Bartiromo asked.

“Well, what I do think—I mean, you don’t have to be an expert for anything. I mean, as you point out, the margin is very close. And there’s always—history always tells us there’s a backlash against the party in power,” Fetterman replied, adding:

There’s always going to be some kind of a backlash. So I think most people would have assumed that the House is going to flip. Now, here in the Senate, that’s a little more difficult, and now you have other races in play. For me, like for Texas, for example, Cornyn is a reasonable Republican, and now that would be money in the bank.

But now I don’t know why politically—I’m not sure why the Republicans and the president wouldn’t sit on that and just lock down Texas. But for me, there’s other states that are in flux. So that’s why I’m saying focus on things, focus on securing our border and deporting the criminals and stop all the kinds of tragedies in Minneapolis, and focus on other things that traditionally the Republicans are stronger on, like the economy.

In Texas, Fetterman was referring to incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who is trying to fend off a primary challenge from his right by Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) — who has been plagued by corruption allegations and personal scandal. Cornyn is widely viewed as the stronger general election candidate, while Democrats are hoping they may be able to flip the seat if Paxton wins the primary.

Watch the clip above via Fox Business.

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