House

Dem rep dismisses Fetterman saying some in party ‘cheering’ for Iran

Comments:

by Max Rego - 04/20/26 10:52 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

by Max Rego - 04/20/26 10:52 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

NOW PLAYING

Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) pushed back on Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) saying that some Democrats are “cheering” for Iran amid the ongoing war.

“No, I think what we’re hearing from our constituents when we go back is that they don’t want another bloody, endless, costly war,” Quigley told host Kasie Hunt on CNN’s “The Arena,” when she asked whether Democratic lawmakers are “cheering” for Iran.

On Friday, Fetterman told Hunt that “a lot of people” in his party have “turned Iran into the underdog.”

The vast majority of Democrats in the Senate and House have voted in favor of war powers resolutions to halt the conflict until Congress authorizes it, with the Pennsylvania senator having been the lone exception in the upper chamber. Outgoing Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) was the only Democrat to vote against a House war powers resolution on the conflict last week.

“They’re like Rudy and putting him up on their shoulders and cheering for Iran, at this point,” Fetterman remarked of Democrats, referring to former Notre Dame football player Rudy Ruettiger. “It’s absurd.”

But Quigley countered that the majority of Americans disapprove of the war because of its growing cost and their preference for President Trump to focus on domestic issues.

“We could have taken care of our own people,” the Illinois Democrat added. “This is a president [who] always said, ‘America first.’ So, no one’s cheering on Iran. We’re cheering against a president who’s doing something that’s illegal, it’s costly, we’ve already lost service members.

“It’s wreaking havoc on our economy. It threatens us in the homeland with terrorist attacks. So, I think it’s patriotic to cheer for peace and to cheer for common sense and to cheer for diplomacy.”

A poll conducted March 30-April 13 by NBC News found that 54 percent of respondents strongly disapprove of how Trump has handled the conflict. Just under 2 in 10 respondents said they strongly approve of how the president is handling it, while 14 percent said they somewhat approve and 13 percent said they somewhat disapprove.

As of April 7, the day that Trump announced a two-week ceasefire that expires on Wednesday, 1,701 civilians in Iran had been killed, including at least 254 children, since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Feb. 28, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

Seven U.S. service members have also been killed by Iranian attacks, while six service members died when a refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq last month. The war has also led to increased prices at the pump due to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps restricting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Add as preferred source on Google