John Fetterman Says Iran Girls’ School Strike Is Just a Leftist Craze

Senator John Fetterman appeared not to understand why Democrats want to investigate the deadly strike that killed dozens of Iranian children. 

During an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Wednesday night, Fetterman was asked to explain why he hadn’t signed onto a letter from Senate Democrats that questioned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the February 28 strike on Shajarah Tayyebeh, a girls’ primary school miles from Tehran. The strike killed 175 people, many of them young girls.

“Well, because we all agree that it’s a tragedy having the school hit, and we all agree now for an investigation,” Fetterman said. “What I don’t agree with the rest of my colleagues in the House is that it’s a war of choice, or it’s dumb, or all the things my colleagues have described, you know, this operation. I think it’s a good thing, and I support that.”

Fetterman was referring to a line in the letter describing Donald Trump’s military campaign as “a war of choice without Congressional authorization.” The letter did not describe the war as “dumb.”

Fetterman noted that the Pentagon was already investigating the strike. A preliminary report determined that the deadly attack was the result of a targeting error by the U.S. military as it conducted a strike on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps naval base next door.

“It seems that they’ve already acknowledging all those things. I think largely that letter, it was rendered moot at this point, after what has already come out,” he said.  

Fetterman added: “I would remind everybody listening right now, the United States never, ever targets civilians. Iran does.”

But that’s exactly why an investigation is necessary: to ensure that the Pentagon took all necessary steps to prevent civilian casualties. In the letter, Senate Democrats pressed Hegseth to provide details on the analysis conducted on the building before the strike, the use of artificial intelligence, the role of civilian harm mitigation, and the Pentagon’s compliance with rules to prevent war crimes. 

Fetterman is naïvely—or callously—giving the Pentagon the benefit of the doubt while the U.S. and Israel bomb schools, hospitals, cultural heritage sites, and residential areas with impunity.

Fetterman ranted that the “left media” seemed to care much more “about this hospital” than about Iran massacring “tens of thousands of their young people.” (Some of us are old enough to remember when Fetterman cheerleaded Israel killing thousands of young people in Gaza.)

“Whether it’s The New York Times, they’re making it more and more, trying to convince America that this has been a disaster or things are out of control, and that’s just categorically untrue,” he said. 

When Collins tried to explain why the media would cover a strike that killed dozens of schoolchildren, Fetterman became defensive.

“It is appropriate to cover it, you know, it’s a tragedy, absolutely. And if we were on it, it’s appropriate to apologize,” he said, looking defeated.