O’Reilly: ‘Fetterman is going to be a Republican’

Political commentator Bill O’Reilly suggested Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who once vowed to leave the Democratic Party if its policy position toward Israel changes, “is going to be a Republican.”

O’Reilly told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo late Wednesday that during a previous town hall featuring Fetterman, he recalled telling the senator that he would “have to switch parties,” to which the Pennsylvania Democrat did not answer.

“Then I asked him on air too,” he continued. “I said, ‘OK, when are you switching parties?’ He will. He’s going to be a Republican.”

The former Fox News host also noted that Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) asked his colleague to speak in a video shown at the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) midterm convention in Dallas.

O’Reilly went on to say that President Trump’s tariffs on steel “has injected a lot of money and hope into” Pennsylvania’s steel industry.

“So, McCormick asked Fetterman, ‘Hey, we owe it to the folks for you to get out there and say that, which Fetterman did,” he told Cuomo and sports commentator Stephen A. Smith.

The commentator added later that it would be ironic “if the Democrats take the House by two and then Fetterman flips to the Republican Party, which means the tie and [Vice President] JD Vance is the tiebreaker.” Unsure of this, the NewsNation host replied that he was “taking all action on that wager.”

Fetterman has grown to be one of the Democrat Party’s most outspoken centrist critics , lambasting left-wing candidates for their progressive views and differences with him over the state of Israel. He frequently appears on conservative media to criticize and provide commentary about changes within the caucus.

The Pennsylvania Democrat, in the clip shown at the convention, branded himself a “commonsense Democrat.”

He praised McCormick as “the kind of senator that gets the job done,” noting their work with Trump to revitalize the manufacturing industry in their commonwealth, and that he would always “reject the extremes in socialism and that anti-American way of life.”

His criticisms toward his own party have faced backlash from other Democrats, as Fetterman has been the only Democrat to vote against every Senate war powers resolution seeking to force Trump to wind down the Iran war.

The senator voted in line with Trump 28 percent of the time last year, more than any other Senate Democrat, according to VoteHub .

He said in an interview at The Hill Nation Summit that he would only leave the Democratic Party if it ever became “the anti-Israel party,” himself having become a staunch supporter of the country and its government in the years since the Hamas-led terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023. But Fetterman has also said he would be a “ terrible Republican ” who “votes overwhelmingly with Democrats.”

Constituents have criticized his unyielding support for Israel. A Quinnipiac University survey released in July found that 52 percent of Keystone State voters want Fetterman to leave the Democratic Party.