McCormick praises Fetterman’s willingness to ‘call out the craziness’ in Democratic Party

Senate McCormick praises Fetterman’s willingness to ‘call out the craziness’ in Democratic Party Comments: by Ryan Mancini - 08/09/26 6:35 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Ryan Mancini - 08/09/26 6:35 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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Sen. David McCormick (R-Pa.) on Sunday praised his colleague Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) for being willing to “call out the craziness” in the Democratic Party, referring to the change among voters in favoring more radical, progressive candidates over more mainstream incumbents.

McCormick told “The Cats Roundtable” host John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM that he “really” respects Fetterman, saying that his remarks defending his positions and standing up for the party has “made him very popular with a lot of Pennsylvania.”

“He votes as a Democrat 93 or 95 percent of the time, so it’s not like he’s not a Democrat in most of his policy positions,” McCormick said. “But he’s willing to stand up and call out the craziness that’s happening in his party. It’s made him unpopular with some of the people in his party.”

McCormick accused the party of taking “this huge swing to the radical left where it’s really embraced policies that are anti-military, anti-law enforcement, antisemitism, anti-Americanism,” before referring to Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D). The candidate last week won a primary against mainstream Democrat Rep. Haley Stevens (Mich.).

Michigan’s “a purple state, and yet you’ve got this radical Democrat and that’s creating all sorts of division in the Democratic Party,” McCormick said. “And ironically, John, the thing that’s scary is that you have a lot of mainstream Democrats that are embracing these radical lefty policies. That’s not the case in Pennsylvania, particularly with John Fetterman.”

McCormick noted toward the end of the interview that he is “lucky to have a good partner in Pennsylvania,” saying he has had people stop him to praise his relationship with Fetterman.

The Pennsylvania Democrat has been outspoken in his criticism of progressive and democratic socialist candidates winning primaries against mainstream Democrats. This extends to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), a democratic socialist who twice won a campaign against former New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary and in the general election, when Cuomo ran as an independent.

Progressives have taken Fetterman to task over his staunch support for Israel, as the country sees shifting support in the U.S. in the years after Israel launched its military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The war and subsequent humanitarian crisis, along with accusations from human rights organizations that Israel’s government committed war crimes and genocide, stirred divisions within the Democratic Party.

Fetterman told The Hill at the Hill Nation Summit in Washington last month that he has “no plans” to leave the Democratic Party, but he warned that the party becoming an “anti-Israel” party would cross a red line.

“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.

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