Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) stated he feels pressured to point out as much as votes and hearings that he finds ineffective, including his psychological well being struggles have been “weaponized.”
“My doctor warned years ago: After it’s public that you are getting help for depression, people will weaponize that,” Fetterman informed The New York Instances in an interview revealed Saturday. “Simple things are turned. That’s exactly what happened.”
Fetterman has beforehand been vocal about his struggles with melancholy after he survived a stroke on the 2022 marketing campaign path that he stated practically killed him.
Fetterman has missed 18.1% of flooring votes since taking workplace.
The brand new report particulars Fetterman’s excessive reluctance with performing his senatorial work duties, together with exhibiting up for procedural votes that he calls “performative.”
Fetterman informed The Instances he would slightly spend time together with his household than present up for work.
“The votes I missed were overwhelmingly procedural; they’re even called ‘bed check’ votes,” he informed the publication. “I had to make a decision: getting here and sticking my thumb in the door for three seconds for a procedural vote or spend Monday night as a dad-daughter date.”
AP Photograph/Ben Curtis, File
Fetterman’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from HuffPost.
The primary-time senator has confronted renewed scrutiny following a New York Journal report by which his former chief of workers spoke out towards him. Adam Jentleson, who served as Fetterman’s chief of workers from 2022 to 2024, revealed he wrote a letter final Could to Fetterman’s physician detailing “warning signs” of the senator’s declining psychological well being.
“I think John is on a bad trajectory and I’m really worried about him,” Jentleson stated within the letter.
Fetterman lamented having to point out as much as hearings and expressed frustration that he’s picked final to ask questions due to seniority guidelines, in accordance with The Instances.
He has additionally confronted criticism for his full-throated assist of Israel and its army bombardment of Gaza. Greater than 50,000 individuals have been killed by Israel, with practically a 3rd of the useless beneath 18.
Recognized for carrying shorts and a Carhartt hoodie across the Capitol, Fetterman donned a go well with and tie on the Home flooring final 12 months when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech to Congress.
And earlier this 12 months, Netanyahu gifted Fetterman a silver pager ― an emblem for Israeli assaults in Lebanon and Syria in 2024 that used exploding pagers concentrating on Hezbollah. The assault killed 13 individuals, together with youngsters.
Together with avoiding votes and hearings, Fetterman has steered away from city halls over fears of protests towards him. The Democratic senator has come beneath hearth for visiting President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in January, calling Trump “kind” and “cordial.” Fetterman stated in February that there “isn’t a constitutional crisis,” simply earlier than Trump gutted important federal businesses.
“I just want to be in a room full of love,” Fetterman has reportedly informed individuals about not attending city halls, in accordance with The Instances.
At a gathering earlier this month with representatives from a lecturers union in his residence state of Pennsylvania, Fetterman started repeating himself and asking why “everybody is mad at me,” the Related Press reported.
At one level, Fetterman slammed his fingers on a desk.
“Why does everyone hate me, what did I ever do?” he reportedly shouted.
