The spokeswoman for Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman dissented from her own boss’ position on the Israel-Gaza conflict after a reporter held an interview with the junior Democrat.
The Free Press reported Sunday that Carrie Adams told him of her disagreement after the senator hung up the call.
“I don’t agree with him,” Adams, the lawmaker’s communications director, reportedly said.
Adams went on to claim that Fetterman, at 55, has “less nuanced” views on global policy than people her age.
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Sen. John Fetterman’s spokeswoman does not agree with the senator’s stance on Israel. (Getty Images)
“[W]hen he was growing up, it was might-makes-right, and for my generation and younger who, of course, are the ones protesting this, they have a much more nuanced view of the region.”
The Free Press report went on to express incredulity at the idea that a spokesperson for a “principal” would openly differ from that principal, whether the conversation was on-the-record or not.
Fox News Digital reached out to Fetterman’s office for comment and to inquire whether Adams stood by her remarks.
A woman who picked up the phone at Fetterman’s Capitol Hill office responded by offering a second telephone number and email for another representative. Efforts to reach another representative were unsuccessful at press time.
However, the reported exchange led to stunned responses from the political world.
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Republican communications strategist Erin Perrine wrote that it is a “big deal” to have a staffer criticize the person they are working for.
“But when the person whose job it is to speak for the boss, defend their decisions, and manage the press does it — That’s an unparalleled level of hubris,” Perrine said on X.
“Always remember whose name is on the door.”
On the left, Democratic strategist Symone Sanders-Townsend wrote that Adams “should be employed after this because WTF?”
“Not saying I disagree with her viewpoint. Rather. Since when does the comms director call up reporters to say ‘I disagree’ with the principal?” said Sanders-Townsend, who previously served in a similar role with the 2016 campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Meanwhile, New York Post columnist John Podhoretz flagged that Adams’ X feed is currently private, following the fallout.
“She’s a communications director. Whom you cannot reach. Or read,” Podhoretz said.
For his part, Fetterman has notably bucked his party on the issue, saying in a statement on his official website that he “fully support[s] Israel neutralizing the terrorists responsible for this barbarism.”
“We now know this was a wide-scale, premeditated, cowardly, terrorist campaign against Israeli civilians that also claimed the lives of American citizens.
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Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., called on the media to keep a spotlight on Israeli hostages being held in Gaza on Friday in a video reminding Americans that Hamas could end “all of the death, destruction and misery” if they simply surrender. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“I unequivocally support any necessary military, intelligence, and humanitarian aid to Israel. The United States has a moral obligation to be in lockstep with our ally as they confront this threat.”
He also welcomed the idea of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking before Congress, as he did earlier this summer.
While visiting Jerusalem in June, Fetterman said there is a “reckoning necessary in the political left with antisemitism…”
In comments in June as well, Fetterman decried the “unending capitulation and sandbagging of Israel.”
The senator’s home in the industrial Pittsburgh suburb of Braddock has been the site of protests, as well as his Philadelphia office, where pro-cease-fire demonstrators hold “Fridays at Fetterman’s.”