WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 -- Senator John Fetterman said Wednesday that what has happened in Gaza does not constitute genocide, declining to apply a label central to left-wing criticism of US policy since October 2023 - and drawing immediate public rebuttal from the comedian hosting the conversation.

Fetterman made the remarks on Jon Stewart's podcast "The Weekly Show," broadcast August 6. Asked directly about the genocide characterization, the Pennsylvania Democrat said: "By definition, that wasn't a genocide." He drew a contrast with the Holocaust and argued that Israel's military capacity to inflict far greater casualties - if elimination were the actual intent - was itself evidence that the intent was absent.

Stewart did not accept the fra...