John Fetterman Accused of Throwing Wife Under the Bus With Border Remarks

Some social media users have accused Senator John Fetterman of throwing his wife under the bus with his comments about the influx of migrants at the southern border.

Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, won his seat in Congress in the 2022 midterms. During Fetterman's campaign, Bernie Sanders, a progressive independent from Vermont, praised Fetterman, saying on NBC's Meet the Press that Fetterman would "be a real fighter for the working class of this country."

However, now it seems that Fetterman is distancing himself from progressives on key issues like immigration and Israel's war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

"I'm not a progressive," Fetterman told NBC News in an article published Friday. "I just think I'm a Democrat that is very committed to choice and other things. But with Israel, I'm going to be on the right side of that. And immigration is something near and dear to me, and I think we do have to effectively address it, as well."

This interview comes as Republicans in Congress push for a more secure southern border after illegal crossings surpassed 2 million for the second year in a row. In September alone, 269,735 apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border were recorded by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

"It's a reasonable conversation—until somebody can say there's an explanation on what we can do when 270,000 people are being encountered on the border, not including the ones, of course, that we don't know about," Fetterman said. "To put that in reference, that is essentially the size of Pittsburgh, the second-largest city in Pennsylvania."

Newsweek reached out to Fetterman via email for comment.

Fetterman's comments received backlash from people on social media who pointed out that Fetterman's wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, was an illegal immigrant at one point. She was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and came to the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant with her family at age 7. She got her green card in 2004 and became a U.S. citizen five years later.

Following Fetterman's NBC interview, journalist Mehdi Hasan re-shared a post by @ampol_moment on X, formerly Twitter. The post was a screenshot of a tweet from Fetterman in June 2021, when he showed a picture of his wife holding official papers and an American flag with the caption "Immigration makes America, America." @ampol_moment wrote in the post, "Senator Fetterman throws his wife under the bus (2023)."

Alexandra Hunt, a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran in Pennsylvania's 3rd Congressional District in 2022 and lost the election for city controller of Philadelphia in May, wrote on X: "Fetterman has never been progressive but endorsing talks for tougher immigration laws when he's married to an incredible woman who was once an illegal immigrant and who kept his campaign alive while he was recovering from a stroke is actually sickening."

Journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote on X: "John Fetterman has earnestly become one of the most beloved Senators among many Republicans: first due to his pro-Israel fanaticism, then his vote for FBI spying, now his hard-line border security stance."

Responding to Fetterman's quote on the surge of migrants from the NBC interview, Greenwald wrote in the same post: "This one's odd because his wife and her family illegally entered the US."

X user @Sandernista412 pointed out the shift in Fetterman's stance with progressives over the past several years.

"John Fetterman in 2017 at the DSA endorsement meeting: 'my wife was an undocumented immigrant and I supported Bernie Sanders I'm the most progressive candidate here,'" @Sandernista412 wrote. "John Fetterman in 2023: 'F*** progress. Close the borders.'"

Meanwhile, Heath Mayo, a conservative who founded the anti-Donald Trump nonprofit Principles First, praised Fetterman.

"John Fetterman is testing a lot of new boundaries for the Democratic Party right now. Aggressively pro-Israel, pro-border security, anti-corruption in his own party... That's principled leadership & Dems should embrace it. He is speaking to a lot of us. #PrinciplesFirst," Mayo said.