Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. John Fetterman continues to surprise. During his strange but ultimately successful 2022 campaign for the job running against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, he came across as a committed progressive, yet much of what he’s been saying in recent months runs counter to leftist dogma and has earned him harsh criticism from Democrats in the media and the government.

Who saw this coming?

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The senator appeared on The Lead With Jake Tapper Friday and once again veered away from the party line, this time daring to call out the nightmare at the southern border created by President Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

The two discussed the anti-Israel crowd as well as the border crisis:

TAPPER: Why do you think you've been so criticized by so many progressives?

FETTERMAN: I honestly don't understand.

I don't understand why it's controversial to anybody to decide that you're going to stand with Israel in this situation? I honestly don't understand why it's controversial to say we need to secure border. I've been very clear. In fact, that was weaponized against me as Republicans in my race that I'm very much strong supporter of immigration and my wife's family...

Fetterman's wife entered the country illegally with her family at age 7. 

Watch:

Fetterman on CNN on criticism from progressives: "I honestly don't understand. I don't understand why it's controversial to decide that you're going to stand with Israel in this situation. I honestly don't understand why it's controversial to say you need a secure border." pic.twitter.com/GQovyu8H2D

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 19, 2024

Fetterman continued, saying that when you have 300,000 illegals showing up at the door, it's very hard to keep the American dream alive:

And I think two things can be true at the same time, you can be very supportive immigration, but we also need to have a secure border. 

And I really -- I think about immigration is we want to provide the American dream for any migrant, but it seems very difficult when you have 300,000 people showing up, encountered at order to do that. And I think we need to reset and we have to work together and develop a new comprehensive solution to that.

It's not the first time the senator has criticized the border problem:

Fetterman 2.0 Delivers a Little Truth About the Border That Accidentally Levels Joe Biden

Asked why he had seemingly turned away from his progressive values, Fetterman told the New York Post last week that he hadn't actually changed -- it was fellow democrats who had actually shifted their stances:

“It’s not so much that I left the title, the title left me,” said Fetterman, 54, who edged out Dr. Mehmet Oz in 2022 to help keep the U.S. Senate blue, and once vowed that “Progressive values” were the heart of his political identity.

“Increasingly, [progressives] moved and migrated into some positions that I don’t agree with and I really just feel much more comfortable just being a Democrat,” the controversial Pennsylvania lawmaker told The Post this week during an exclusive sitdown in his D.C. office.

I would not have bet a dollar in 2022 that Fetterman would become one of the more interesting voices in the U.S. Senate. He's not suddenly going to start voting Republican, but compared to other extreme Democrats in Congress these days, he looks positively rational.