In a contentious March 2026 CNN interview, Kaitlan Collins attacked Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) on why he was the only Senate Democrat who refused to sign a performative letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanding a swift investigation into a Feb. 28 U.S. missile strike on an Iranian elementary school.
While Fetterman agreed it was a tragedy warranting an investigation and an apology if U.S. responsibility were confirmed, the Pentagon was already probing and acknowledging probable involvement. He supported the broader military action as necessary, unlike many Democrats, contrasting the U.S. avoidance of deliberate civilian targeting with Iran’s regime.
In any case, the biased CNN journalist began, “You mentioned how you differ from your colleagues, your other fellow Democrats, every Senate Democrat except you, signed a letter today to Secretary Hegseth asking for an investigation into that strike on a girl’s school in Iran. Why did you not sign that letter?”
“We all agree that is a tragedy having the school hit. Absolutely. And we all agree now, for an investigation, what I 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 that my colleagues have described, you know, this operation, I think it’s, it’s a good thing, and I support that,” the honest Democrat fired back.
Building on this point, he added, “The Pentagon is already investing in that…I think it’s entirely appropriate, just like my colleague from Louisiana said… we should apologize for that being a tragedy. And I would remind everybody listening right now, the United States never, ever targets civilians.”
Slamming the Islamic regime, Fetterman noted, “Iran does you know, and including their own citizens. And they massacred 35,000 of them just a couple of weeks ago, and the left please, please. The left media is much more angry, you know, about or talking about this hospital, and it is a tragedy, but they didn’t seem to be as concerned about the Iranians massacring 10s of 1000s of their young people just a couple of weeks ago.”
After a transparent attempt to dodge responsibility, Collins asked, “But just to be clear, you do believe, if the United States was responsible, that the Pentagon should acknowledge that they accidentally hit a girls’ school?”
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Responding, the Pennsylvania senator stated, “I’ve said that. I said it seems that they’ve already acknowledged all those things. I think that letter, largely, was rendered moot at this point, after what’s already come out. Now, the Pentagon has agreed that they were behind that.”
“I’m saying that you know, whether, like, it’s the New York Times, they’re making it more and more, trying to convince America that this, this has been a disaster, or things are out of control. And that’s just categorically not true,” he explained.
After the CNN host interuopted, the senator thundered, in what was the highlight of the interview, “You don’t have to cut me off!” After releasing that pent up exhausting with the CNN hack, he continued, “It is appropriate to cover it. You know, it’s a tragedy, absolutely, you know. And now, if we were on that, it’s entirely appropriate for it to apologize if you’re implying that I don’t think it’s wrong to cover it, that’s just not true. ”
Watch the dramatic clip here:
Featured image from embedded video