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Fetterman Blasts His Side of the Aisle for Their Blatant Disrespect of Erika Kirk and Iryna Zarutska

Dmitri Bolt
Dmitri Bolt  |  February 25, 2026 1:15 PM

Senator John Fetterman slammed his fellow Democrats for what he described as blatant disrespect during President Trump’s address, after several Congressional Democrats declined to stand or applaud two of the president’s guests: Erika Kirk, widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and the mother of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who was killed while walking home from work in North Carolina last August.

"The rest of the people in my party wouldn't stand up and clap for her," Fetterman said.

"I stood up and I clapped to recognize the family that lost their daughter, the Ukrainian girl that was stabbed to death in North Carolina. And I stood up and I clapped for that political prisoner from Venezuela. You know, how you can you not celebrate those kinds of things? And now I also celebrated all the veterans that were in the audience as well, too."

And even more the political things like, like Erika Kirk, I stood up, and I clapped for her as well, too. Now, here, you know, can't we just be more kind to a widow? I mean, we just shouldn't be that long ago that a widow, you know, with young children has her husband murdered, you know, how we can't just acknowledge that as well.

The senator added that he will always stand and applaud when a president does something good for the country, regardless of party differences. He then went on to take a swipe at some of his fellow Democrats, saying that, despite political disagreements, that doesn't warrant disrupting the president's State of the Union address.

"So I'm always going to stand up and clap for things that I agree with, like striking in the Iranian, sites," Fetterman added. "Now for me, I never worry about who's standing up or clapping. If I see it, I'm going to. If I don't agree with it or whatever, I'm certainly not going to yell and scream and disrupt the whole thing."