Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman says his party’s big tent now fits people who say America deserved 9/11 better than Democrats who stand with Israel.

Fox News reported that Fetterman delivered the blunt assessment Saturday at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, telling CBS News’ Major Garrett the party’s leftward energy has left pro-Israel Democrats squeezed out.

The Pennsylvania Democrat said the contrast is no longer subtle. He argued it is now easier to stay inside the Democratic tent while denouncing America than while proudly backing Israel.

“It’s easier to be included in that big tent to say ‘America deserved 9/11’ or America is ‘worse than Al-Qaeda’ than being very proud to stand on the side of Israel,” Fetterman said.

He pointed to streamer Hasan Piker’s large Austin crowd as proof of where the energy sits. Piker made a “deserved 9/11” remark on a 2019 livestream and later said he “obviously” did not believe Americans deserved the terrorist attacks. Fox News Digital sought comment from Piker and did not immediately receive a response.

Fetterman draws a hard line on leaving the party

Garrett asked whether any circumstance would push Fetterman out of the Democratic Party. Fetterman did not dodge.

“If our party ever becomes, and just makes it official, the anti-Israel party, that’s when I would leave, because that’s been a moral clarity for me,” he said.

He framed U.S. support for Israel as a test of American self-respect, not a side issue. In his view, abandoning Israel would signal that the country no longer believes in its own values.

“If America stops supporting Israel or turns their back on Israel, that must mean that we don't even believe in ourselves anymore,” Fetterman said. “I mean that's that's our special ally and that is the kinds of values and the kinds of the you know how we live here that's that only exists in one place in that region and that's that's Israel.”

That stance has already put him at odds with large parts of his caucus, a pattern also visible in recent coverage of Fetterman’s refusal to lock in party-line Senate votes.

Polling and Senate votes back his warning

Fetterman cited the numbers himself. “80% Democrats have a negative view on Israel,” he said. “More and more members of my caucus are becoming more and more anti-Israel.” He added, “I’m just describing that’s where a lot of the energy on the left is in my party.”

A Pew Research Center survey conducted in March found 80% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents held an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 53% in 2022. Overall, 60% of American adults viewed Israel unfavorably.

The shift has shown up on the Senate floor. In April, 40 Senate Democrats voted to block a $295 million sale of bulldozers to Israel. Thirty-six backed blocking a $151.8 million sale of 1,000-pound bombs. Fetterman referenced resolutions introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., while discussing the opposition to Israeli military assistance. Those measures did not target Iron Dome funding, which Fetterman separately cited as defensive help Israel still needs.

His willingness to break with the left has also surfaced in foreign-policy votes, including when he stood alone among Democrats backing Trump on an Iran war-powers fight.

DNC chair distances the party from Piker

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin answered the tension in comments to Fox News Digital on Monday. He condemned Piker while insisting the streamer does not speak for Democrats.

“Let me just say that I think it’s absolutely disgusting and deplorable the things that Hasan Piker has said,” Martin said. “But he does not represent the Democratic Party, and he certainly doesn’t represent the viewpoints of almost every one of our candidates and our elected officials.”

Martin still defended Democrats as a “big tent” party. Fetterman’s point was that the tent’s entrance rules have changed: anti-Israel rhetoric travels farther than unapologetic support for the U.S.-Israel alliance.

Party-switch questions keep circling

The Austin appearance also produced an awkward aside that kept switch speculation alive. The New York Post reported that Fetterman accidentally called himself a “lifelong Republican,” then laughed it off after the correction. He has appeared at a Republican midterm event, vowed to work with Trump, and broken with Democrats on votes opposing Iran war-powers resolutions and cutting U.S. aid to Israel.

He has told reporters to wait on the labeling fights. “Why can’t you guys just wait till the midterms? And if I turn Republican, then I’ll be a liar.... Chill,” Fetterman said, while also joking that the slip would “break through.” He has said he has no path as a Republican, yet he has left the door open if Democrats become the anti-Israel party outright.

That ambiguity tracks with other moments when he has lost patience with reporters pressing a Republican switch, even as party figures publicly predict an exit.

Veteran Democrat James Carville has already said he has “no doubt” Fetterman will leave, a forecast that lands harder after comments like the ones in Austin and after Carville’s own prediction gained traction.

Inside Pennsylvania, the strain is not abstract either. Local Democrats have already turned on him in public fights over accountability and constituent contact, another sign the breach is wider than one festival panel.

Fetterman is describing a party that polls colder toward Israel, votes to slow its arms sales, and packs rooms for voices that once treated 9/11 as America’s fault. He says that is the energy that now sets the terms. If Democrats make anti-Israel politics official doctrine, he says he is gone. Taxpayers and voters who still see Israel as a frontline ally against terror should not have to guess which side of that line their party chooses.