Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania is backing Rep. Andy Kim of New Jersey in the primary to unseat Sen. Bob Menendez, the embattled Democrat charged in a federal corruption case. fire a colleague.

Mr. Fetterman, Mr. Menendez's fiercest Democratic critic in Congress who has repeatedly called for him to resign, is the first sitting senator to endorse a candidate in the race. In an interview, he explained his decision to intervene in a primary and take out a fellow incumbent senator, bluntly stating that “anything would be an upgrade over Menendez.”

Mr. Kim, a three-term congressman who represents a southern New Jersey district that former President Donald J. Trump won twice, is running for the seat against Tammy Murphy, New Jersey's first lady and a primary candidate who former is president. registered Republican. Ms. Murphy has locked up much of the institutional support in a state where county leaders have enormous power in primaries but struggle to gain traction with the base.

Mr. Kim leads by double digits in some recent polls.

In an interview, Mr. Fetterman said he was “excited” about Mr. Kim and that Ms. Murphy’s political background — she only changed her party affiliation from Republican to Democratic in 2014 — gave him pause.

“One of the most important things is that we have a reliable Democratic voice,” Fetterman said. 'We have to run this table in '24 to keep the majority. But we must count on every Democratic vote. Andy Kim is the kind of man we can count on.”

Mr. Fetterman said Ms. Murphy was probably “a nice woman, but the last time I had to deal with a Republican from New Jersey, it was my own race.” Mr. Fetterman defeated Dr. in 2022. Mehmet Oz, the Republican candidate for Senate, whom he mercilessly targeted as a famous carpetbagger from the Garden State.

“I wouldn't want to risk having someone who might be hesitant when we have to cast a solid Democratic vote in a very, very divided Senate like us,” Mr. Fetterman said. Mr. Kim, he said, is a well-known figure and a “leading member of Congress who has worked very, very hard.”

Mr. Kim said he appreciated the support in a Senate race that he said would be the most dramatic in New Jersey history.

“To have someone who is a sitting senator, who knows the job, knows the role of a legislator right now, and also just understands the crazy, chaotic moment that we're living in right now, that's something that stands out,” Mr. . Kim said in an interview. “Senator Menendez is still here and working. That has complicated this dynamic. I appreciate Senator Fetterman's willingness to lean forward. That's not necessary. It is a very complicated race.”

Mr. Kim, a soft-spoken former national security official in the Obama administration, cast himself as the proven candidate New Jersey voters need to restore their faith in politics.

“Right now, 84 percent of people in New Jersey believe their politicians are corrupt,” he said, calling the indictment against Mr. Menendez the “breaking point” for many voters. “At a certain point you think: how can democracy function at such a level of lack of trust? Many people want someone who can be there from day one and get the job done right away.”

Mr. Kim echoed Mr. Fetterman's charge that Ms. Murphy would not necessarily be a reliable Democratic voice in the Senate, noting that she switched parties long after the Affordable Care Act was enacted.

“She voted in every Republican primary during the Obama administration,” Kim said. “She'll have to explain that.”

The race is complicated in part because the seat isn't technically open. Mr. Menendez, who resigned as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee after being accused in September of accepting bribes and gold bars in exchange for political favors, has denied any wrongdoing and accused the Justice Department of framing him in a public smear campaign attacked.

He has defiantly refused to resign, although he has not formally announced a re-election campaign. Polls show him with 6 percent favorability among New Jersey voters. Mr Fetterman said: “I don't really trust the polls. Six percent actually seems like a lot for his approval.”

Mr. Kim was also scheduled to announce endorsements Thursday from six Democratic House members from Pennsylvania: Reps. Dwight Evans, Madeleine Dean, Chrissy Houlahan, Mary Gay Scanlon, Susan Wild and Brendan Boyle.

In April 2022, during his Senate primary in Pennsylvania, John Fetterman spoke enthusiastically about his unconditional support for Israel and said he did not consider himself “progressive” when it came to his views on the Jewish state.

“Anytime I am in a situation where I am called upon to take up the cause of strengthening and improving Israel’s security or deepening our relationship between the United States and Israel, I will stand by it” , Mr. Fetterman said. the lieutenant governor, told Jewish Insider at the time. When it came to far-left Democrats who harshly criticized Israel, he added: “I would also respectfully say that I am not really progressive in that sense.”

So while the left has turned on Fetterman in recent weeks, labeling him #GenocideJohn for his unequivocal support for Israel’s fierce retaliation against Hamas in response to the October 7 terrorist attacks, the senator has dug in.

Once a darling of progressives who positioned himself as a champion of the underdog and highlighted his association with Senator Bernie Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist from Vermont, Mr. Fetterman now takes a less rosy view of the left and says the label “progressive” fits no longer with him.

“What I’ve discovered over the last few years is that the right, and now the left, are hoping that I die,” Fetterman, who suffered a near-fatal stroke while campaigning, said in an interview Wednesday. ‘There are those who are looking for a new blood clot. They both wish me to die now.’

Mr. Fetterman has rejected calls for a ceasefire, filled the walls of the hallway outside his Senate office with photos of the hostages taken by Hamas, wrapped himself in an Israeli flag and even waved it provocatively against pro-Palestinian demonstrators. There’s even a large Israeli flag hanging on the wall behind his desk, positioned so that it’s visible in his Zoom recordings.

By wading strongly into an issue that has exposed a deep rift within the Democratic Party as the death toll in Gaza has risen, Mr. Fetterman has shattered any lingering perception that he is a progressive fighter in step with the left.

He has also publicly encouraged Democrats in recent days to enter into border negotiations with Republicans, talks that have outraged progressives who object to efforts to restrict migration through the United States’ border with Mexico.

“I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have a secure border,” Mr. Fetterman said in the interview, conducted via Zoom. “I would never endanger Dreamers or support any form of brutality or mass expulsion of hundreds of thousands of people. But it is a reasonable conversation to talk about the border.”

It all marks a shift in Mr. Fetterman’s image, even if the label “progressive” never fit him perfectly. In 2018, Mr. Sanders called Mr. Fetterman an “excellent progressive” as he endorsed his campaign for lieutenant governor. Mr. Fetterman, an early supporter of Sanders’ presidential bid in 2016, introduced himself at political events as “a Democrat and a progressive.”

The Pennsylvania senator said he still supports many progressive goals, including a $15 minimum wage, universal health care, legalizing marijuana and abolishing the Senate filibuster.

But he said he is no longer concerned with the umbrella label of “progressive” — especially as the left has become more interested in demanding what he described as “purity tests.”

“It’s just a place where I’m not,” he said. “I don’t feel like I’ve left the label; it’s just more that it has left me.

“I’m not critical of someone being progressive,” he added. “I believe different things.”

Such views have given his former critics – some of whom routinely called him a vegetable after his stroke and accused him of promoting a “radical socialist agenda” – a disorienting sense of whiplash.

“What multiverse is this?” the right-wing website Breitbart posted this on social media with a link to Mr. Fetterman’s recent appearance on CNN claiming that TikTok was responsible for giving younger Americans a “distorted” view of the Israel-Hamas war.

Mr. Fetterman is shedding the “progressive” label as his health has improved significantly, following his stroke in 2022 and a six-week stay this year at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for clinical depression.

He still suffers from some auditory processing problems that are a side effect of the stroke, but his speech has improved significantly, even from a few months ago, and he is ready for action.

These days, the freshman senator who arrived in Washington and struggled to get along with colleagues and reporters seems to be enjoying the spotlight and the give-and-take with the press. He said he tries to ignore the criticism he sees online, which he says creates a “warped and distorted perspective,” and instead focuses on the positive interactions with voters who approach him in coffee shops for selfies and to to chat. And while he still insists his goal is to give his party a reliably Democratic voice in the Senate, Mr. Fetterman thrives on moments when he can position himself as an independent thinker.

He said he was baffled that anyone on the left had expected a different response from him on Israel. “I’m not sure exactly what part of all this would be a surprise if anyone was paying attention,” Mr. Fetterman said.

Yet the backlash was thrilling. Protesters have closed the streets in front of his district offices, demanding his support for a ceasefire. A group of former campaign staffers wrote an anonymous letter voicing support for Israel “repressing betrayal” of what they thought his values ​​were. And progressives have expressed frustration that Mr. Fetterman in particular has rallied to support Israel rather than the Palestinians whose plight they have made their cause.

Melissa Byrne, who worked on Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign and is now an organizer for liberal causes, accused Fetterman of “trying to have it both ways,” claiming to only be progressive if it helped him electorally.

“He’s here for the atmosphere,” she said. “You have to at least be honest and say, ‘Hey, I called myself a progressive because we wanted to raise more money. We had to win. ”

Ms. Byrne said she has always had doubts about Mr. Fetterman’s progressive bona fides since he declared Pennsylvania “the Saudi Arabia of natural gas” and said it was impossible to win the state in a presidential election while banning relied on gas. fracking.

Today, she said, “he is aligning himself with Likud,” Israel’s right-wing ruling party, and its leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Why doesn’t he criticize Netanyahu for not cracking down on settler violence?” she asked.

In the interview, Mr. Fetterman was not chastened. He was measured in criticizing Mr Netanyahu, whose government’s failure to prevent the October 7 attacks has sparked backlash at home and abroad, and who has come under criticism from President Biden for his response.

“I’m not suggesting he’s ideal, any more than anyone would think Trump is ideal,” Fetterman said. “But that’s the leader we have.”

For his part, Mr. Fetterman said he has always prided himself on passing his own internal test of sanity before caving to the demands of his party or his base. Outside his Senate office, for example, he hangs a flag honoring American prisoners of war and another proclaiming LGBTQ pride. “I’m pretty sure I’m the only senator who has both,” he said. “Can’t it be possible that it is really appropriate to stand for both?”

But it is the issue of Israel where Mr. Fetterman is as confused by members of the left as they are by him.

“I find it confusing that the very left progressives in America don’t really seem to want to support the only progressive nation in the region that really embraces the same kind of values ​​that I would expect we would want as a society,” he said. of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Regarding the complaints from anonymous former members of his campaign staff, Mr. Fetterman said that “it’s hard to respect someone’s opinion if they don’t put their name to it.” None of his current aides have raised concerns about his political views, he said.

Still, Mr. Fetterman said he is not entirely surprised that he is not appeasing the same Democratic voters who were outraged in 2016 when he supported Hillary Clinton’s candidacy after Mr. Sanders dropped out of the race.

“This bizarre purity thing where people were offended because I hugged Secretary Clinton when we have Trump on the other side?” said Mr. Fetterman. “How did that work out for you?”