In a candid discussion with entrepreneur, businessman, and angel investor David Friedberg on the All-In Podcast, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) provided a frank critique of the leadership within his own party, or rather, the absence of it. Fetterman isn’t one to shy away from supporting policies that go against the grain of his party and its leaders. Notably, he stands by Israel, voted in favor of the Laken Riley Act, backs Operation Epic Fury, and even goes so far as to assert that he doesn’t see President Donald Trump as Hitler.
Fetterman has shown a willingness to challenge the status quo within his party. During the interview, when Friedberg posed a straightforward question, Fetterman’s response was refreshingly on point.
“Who do you think leads the Democratic Party today?” Friedman asked, and Fetterman did not hesitate an iota.
“Oh, we don’t, we don’t have one,” he said, before adding, “I think the TDS, [Trump Derangement Syndrome] that — I think that’s the leader right now.”
It’s the same response I would have given. It’s not Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Kamala Harris, or Gavin Newsom. The driving force behind the party is simply their disdain for Trump; that’s all there is to it.
However, Fetterman was just getting started. He depicted a party that is less motivated by principles and more swayed by instinctive opposition. “You know, right now our, our party is, is governed by the TDS,” he continued, arguing that it has “made it virtually impossible without being punished as a Democrat to agree something’s good or I agree with the other side.”
He went on to describe the current political climate in the starkest of terms. “I would define that by Epic Fury,” and positioning himself as an outlier within his own caucus. “I am literally the only Democrat… in Congress that I’ve come across that’s saying, ‘I think it’s a great thing to break and destroy the Iranian regime. I think it’s entirely appropriate to hold them accountable.’”
What really chaps his you-know-what is the disconnect between past Democratic positions and rhetoric versus current responses. “What’s strange to me [is] that every single Democrat that’s run for president, uh, and anyone that I know in Congress says we must never allow [Iran] to acquire a nuclear bomb,” he noted. “When that happens, why not celebrate that or acknowledge that?”
Rather, Fetterman says the responses from nearly everyone else in his party are to automatically oppose whatever Trump is for.
“I have only witnessed just criticism and these kinds of these kinds of attack[s],” he said, adding that political tribalism is overriding common sense. “Yeah, you don’t have to agree on every single thing, but when a good thing happens, just because it comes from a, uh, the different party, um, that, that tells me that you’re choosing the demand of the, the base or the party over country or what, what’s really a — I think appropriate in that circumstances.”
?NEW: @friedberg: “Who do you think leads the Democratic party today?”
JOHN FETTERMAN: “We don’t have one … Right now our party is governed by the TDS.”
@DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/Mr2Z4bVRs5— Jason Cohen ?? (@JasonJournoDC) March 18, 2026
Although Fetterman’s evaluation of his own party isn’t particularly surprising to me, it carries significant weight when a Democrat openly acknowledges what we’ve been pointing out for years.
