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 physician warned years in the past: After it’s public that you’re getting assist for melancholy, individuals will weaponize that,” Fetterman told The New York Times in an interview revealed Saturday. “Easy issues are turned. That’s precisely what occurred.”
Fetterman has beforehand been vocal about his struggles with melancholy after he survived a stroke on the 2022 marketing campaign path that he stated nearly killed him.
Fetterman has missed 18.1% of floor 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 instructed The Instances he would fairly spend time along with his household than present up for work.
“The votes I missed have been overwhelmingly procedural; they’re even referred to as ‘mattress examine’ votes,” he instructed the publication. “I needed to decide: getting right here and sticking my thumb within the door for 3 seconds for a procedural vote or spend Monday evening as a dad-daughter date.”
AP Picture/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 Magazine report wherein his former chief of employees spoke out in opposition to him. Adam Jentleson, who served as Fetterman’s chief of employees from 2022 to 2024, revealed he wrote a letter final Could to Fetterman’s physician detailing “warning indicators” of the senator’s declining psychological well being.
“I feel John is on a foul trajectory and I’m actually anxious 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, based on The Instances.
He has additionally confronted criticism for his full-throated assist of Israel and its military bombardment of Gaza. Greater than 50,000 individuals have been killed by Israel, with nearly a third of the dead under 18.
Recognized for carrying shorts and a Carhartt hoodie across the Capitol, Fetterman donned a suit 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 ― a logo for Israeli attacks 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 clear of town halls over fears of protests in opposition to him. The Democratic senator has come below fireplace 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 critical federal companies.
“I simply need to be in a room full of affection,” Fetterman has reportedly instructed individuals about not attending city halls, based on The Instances.
At a gathering earlier this month with representatives from a academics union in his residence state of Pennsylvania, Fetterman started repeating himself and asking why “everyone is mad at me,” the Associated Press reported.
At one level, Fetterman slammed his arms on a desk.
“Why does everybody hate me, what did I ever do?” he reportedly shouted.
