Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) accused Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed of “going after” Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) for her attempts to hold him “accountable for his views on Israel and fixation with Jewish money.”

The Pennsylvania senator made the comments to Jewish Insider amid the public dispute between El-Sayed and Stevens in the final days of the general election. Fetterman criticized El-Sayed’s decision to put out a statement attacking his Democratic primary rival, and the subsequent reports that his campaign had asked Stevens to stay away from all future campaign events, as an “overreaction” that highlights “why he struggles with groups of Michigan voters.”

“Rep. Haley Stevens simply held Abdul El-Sayed accountable for his views on Israel and fixation with Jewish money,” Fetterman said. “El-Sayed is going after a woman and banning her from campaign events for having an opinion. El-Sayed’s overreaction demonstrates why he struggles with groups of Michigan voters. He has the worst case of little man syndrome I’ve ever seen.”

El-Sayed’s campaign did not immediately respond to JI’s request for comment on Fetterman’s statement.

The intra-party dispute began making headlines this week after Stevens publicly appealed to El-Sayed to condemn an antisemitic ad in support of his campaign and take down a campaign ad featuring Tucker Carlson. Stevens’ comments came as her fiancé, Jason Turkish, endorsed Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers and appeared at a Republican Jewish Coalition event for him on Wednesday, citing El-Sayed’s treatment of Israel and Jewish voters.

Stevens quickly clarified on CNN Wednesday evening that she was still supporting El-Sayed, though she emphasized that the Democratic nominee had not done enough to address Black and Jewish voters’ concerns about the ads. El-Sayed declined the request and suggested that anyone not committed to supporting him has “higher priorities than defending our democracy.”

Stevens was slated to appear alongside El-Sayed and Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), an influential Black Democrat who supported Stevens in the primary, at a church event on Sunday. The Michigan Democrats haven’t appeared together since immediately after the primary election, but Stevens said early Thursday that she wasn’t planning to appear with El-Sayed before Election Day.

On Friday morning, Stevens released a lengthy statement conditioning her support for El-Sayed on his willingness to condemn the Rebellion PAC ad, which blamed U.S. aid to Israel for higher food prices in the U.S. Stevens argued in the statement that El-Sayed’s attempt to distance himself from the ad without condemning its substance was insufficient, and that he needed to acknowledge the ways his own rhetoric throughout the campaign has followed the same arguments from the ad. 

Stevens also said that she had been told that El-Sayed planned to condemn the Rebellion PAC ad, and suggested that he intended to do so before the Sunday event. 

In response, El-Sayed’s campaign released a statement attacking Stevens later that day, which highlighted that El-Sayed has “always been focused on addressing the most critical challenges Michiganders are facing” which is “why our people-powered campaign defeated a historic $70M in outside spending from big corporations and AIPAC on behalf of Congresswoman Stevens.”

Since then, multiple reports have alleged that El-Sayed’s campaign has told Stevens that she is no longer welcome at campaign events. The El-Sayed campaign on Saturday sent out an advisory for the upcoming Clyburn event, which did not list Stevens as a participant. 

Jewish Insider senior congressional correspondent Marc Rod contributed to this report