WASHINGTON (TNS) — The dustup over the future of the Democratic Party and how lawmakers should blunt President Donald Trump’s grip on Washington showed little signs of abating, with Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania still playing a central role.

Former Democratic Congressman Conor Lamb, who finished second to Fetterman in the state’s 2022 Senate primary, accused the senator on Friday of “collaborating with — rather than fighting” the president and his Republican Party, which controls both chambers of Congress.

Lamb said Fetterman — who has slammed Democratic protests of Trump and a little more than a week ago voted in favor of a GOP stopgap funding measure to keep the government funded through September — was working with people who “destroyed union rights at [Philadelphia International Airport], singled out a huge employer in our state [the University of Pennsylvania] for a $175 million cut [over diversity initiatives] [and] announced closure of mine safety offices and even one for the Flight 93 memorial.”

”Just this week,” added Lamb.

Three years ago, a populist Fetterman campaign bashed Lamb for votes aligned with Trump during his first administration. Many Republicans at the time branded Fetterman as a far left socialist — a far cry from what his supporters and critics on both sides of the aisle have been calling him lately.

The divide over how to both stand up to Trump and win over voters is on full display on social media, protests at lawmakers’ offices, including Fetterman’s, packed town halls and rallies across the country.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats — and who Fetterman supported in the 2016 presidential primary — is holding “fight the oligarchy” rallies alongside a leading House progressive, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

Lamb’s commentary followed a Friday morning post on X by Fetterman in which the senator dismissed Ocasio-Cortez’s call for a tougher fight from the Democratic Party.

”Fight ‘harder’ — a stunt that would have harmed millions and plunged us into chaos,” Fetterman said of the GOP funding bill, which all but one Democrat voted against in the House. “We kept our government open. Deal with it.”

Last week, Fetterman noted his vote for the “deeply flawed” continuing resolution was not an endorsement.

”I refuse to punish working families and plunge millions of Americans into chaos,” he said. “I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever vote to shut our government down.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s response: “Cool so what happens if GOP attach a national abortion ban to a [continuing resolution]? You’ll vote for that too?”

Many House Democrats have said they feel betrayed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Some have pressed for new leadership and many Democrats in both chambers are pushing for a more combative stance.

Schumer, Fetterman and eight other Democrats paved the way for passage of the Republican bill. The move sparked an outcry from Democrats who say Trump and adviser Elon Musk are steamrolling over Washington without congressional oversight — gutting agencies, slashing the federal workforce and eliminating critical programs and grants that economically disadvantaged constituents rely on, including in states and counties dominated by Trump voters.

”This is a signal to the American people that Democrats will not fight for them,” Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, said on X after Schumer said he couldn’t cast a vote leading to a shutdown. “We have to be using our votes for leverage right now. To protect the social services folks are asking us to. To invest in our communities. Otherwise Republicans will just keep running us over.”

Fetterman has been adamant that he’s doing his job — working with Republicans like Trump and Sen. Dave McCormick when it helps Pennsylvanians, but fighting the administration when warranted.

He has sharply criticized the administration’s measures targeting the transgender community. He has also criticized the chaotic nature of firings led by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, even after publicly praising Musk and saying he was open to DOGE’s stated purpose of eradicating fraud and wasteful spending.

Last week, Fetterman criticized the results of the administration’s aggressive purge of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives — which led to the widely-denounced takedown of a Pentagon webpage highlighting the U.S. Army service of baseball and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson.

”Jackie Robinson is an American hero,” Fetterman said. “In the face of severe negativity and upheaval, he responded with dignity, restraint and poise. Calling on [the Defense Department] to restore Robinson’s deserved place in our nation’s history.”

The Pentagon after widespread condemnation over the issue reassigned a spokesman, according to the Washington Post, and reinstated the page devoted to Robinson’s military service. The Defense Department also restored a page on the Navajo Code Talkers, USA Today reported.

Fetterman, who stood out as the lone Democrat to back Pam Bondi’s confirmation as attorney general, the lone Democrat to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in January, and who has consistently launched attacks against his own party’s messaging as being losing politics, denied reports earlier this year that he was considering switching parties.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who’s risen as a top Trump critic, has encouraged Democrats to act like a “true opposition party” — one that refuses to confirm Trump Cabinet nominees or advance partisan legislation.

But Democratic and Republican strategists alike tell the Post-Gazette that Fetterman, in a purple state narrowly won by Trump, must play the middle ground more often than those from left-leaning states.

Charlie Gerow, a Harrisburg-based GOP strategist, recently said Fetterman has become “the voice of reason within the Democratic Party.”

Ocasio-Cortez, whom some Democrats are pressing to primary Schumer in 2028, suggested to rally goers in Las Vegas Thursday that her party is looking for fighters.

”If you’re willing to fight for someone you don’t know, you’re welcome here,” she said. “But I will say this: Those leaders on either side of aisle willing to put their fellow Americans down so they can get ahead — they may best find a home somewhere else.”