Harry Truman used to say, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” Here’s hoping John Fetterman has a whole litter. Have you seen a more coordinated political attack?
Before we walk through it, a couple of contextual caveats: I’ve been no blind cheerleader for Fetterman. I’ve written about how weird it is that a grown man walks around in hoodie and shorts; most of us gave up those style choices in our teens. There’s a strange case of arrested development (not to mention White privilege) going on with our man-child U.S. Senator.
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Additionally, it bears remembering that, while Fetterman is a brilliant man-of-the-people brand, he had an interpersonal likability problem long before his stroke during the 2022 U.S. Senate campaign. Back when he was Lieutenant Governor, he refused to play nice with the political establishment at all levels — national, state and city, as this piece in Politico detailed at the time. He was not a schmoozer or a backslapper or a pol who worked personal relationships. He’s aloof; shy, even. As a U.S. Senator, those quirks of personality have only amplified, especially post-stroke, which we’ll get to.
With all that as background, let’s visit the recent attacks. It started with a detonation in the pages of New York magazine, a sequencing by reporter Ben Terris of the Senator’s disturbing behaviors in the last year: allegations of paranoia, dangerous behavior, and delusional thinking, anecdotes of the Senator suddenly unaware of his surroundings. The sources were ex- and current staffers, and even, in one case, apparently a senatorial colleague. Former Chief of Staff Adam Jentleson provided a 1,600-word email he wrote to Fetterman’s doctor a year ago that listed his, and other staffers’, myriad concerns. Among them: that, following a stroke at the end of the 2022 Senate campaign, and after being treated for clinical depression in early 2023, the Senator had seemed to go off his meds and was putting himself and staffers in danger. (No one on staff, the allegation went, wanted to drive with the Senator when he was behind the wheel.)
The politicos I regularly talk to saw the seismic impact of the story right away — all while shaking their head at how sad Fetterman’s downfall has become. The rumbling is that Fetterman will face a challenge in his 2028 primary, probably from the left and possibly from the center in the form of erstwhile candidate Conor Lamb, a former U.S. Rep from Western PA.
The New York magazine story — headlined “All By Himself” — is a sad, disturbing tale. As was an Inquirer followup — or pile-on — headlined “Inside Sen. John Fetterman’s office: canceled meetings, skipped votes and an outburst with Pa. teachers.” Six former Fetterman staffers, the paper reported, “spoke to The Inquirer on the condition of anonymity, for fear of career repercussions working in Democratic politics” and they allege, “Fetterman isn’t doing the basic job of a U.S. senator. The former staffers described a frequently absent senator, spending many hours on the Hill alone in his office, avoiding colleagues or meetings” and missing 29 of 236 votes since January. These anonymous former employees also say Fetterman raised his voice and pounded the table during a meeting with teacher union reps. (If testy outbursts with allies were a disqualifying factor for public office, former Mayor and Governor Ed Rendell wouldn’t have been eligible for election as committeeman.)
The fallout has caused none other than Republican Senator Dave McCormick to courageously speak out and say enough is enough. “It’s time to put politics aside and stop these vicious, personal attacks against Senator Fetterman, his wife and his health,” McCormick posted on X, calling his colleague “authentic, decent, principled, and a fighter.”
Two things can be true at the same time
McCormick is getting at two important things here: One, that Fetterman is the likely target of a progressive political attack. And, two, that a subtle type of bigotry informs this coverage. Neither the New York mag or Inquirer pieces delve deeply into the intricacies of stroke recovery. Fact is, it is actually normal to struggle in recovery and it’s no surprise that Fetterman is something of a changed man.
I speak from personal experience, having had a very minor stroke in 2022, shortly after brain aneurysm surgery. My case was nowhere near as serious as Fetterman’s. Still, there was a period when all I did, while my loving friends at The Citizen thought I was hard at work, was lie in bed with my tabby Adam (RIP) on my stomach, the two of us binging on old 80s teen movies for hours: Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club.
At the time, I couldn’t really explain my sudden Molly Ringwold obsession. (Where have you gone, Anthony Michael Hall? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.) But, turns out, I had to go through that phase. Now, this I know: You’re never actually the same after something in your brain goes haywire, and so much of the behavior described in the New York magazine piece is actually quite common to stroke recovery.
We don’t hear from a neurologist, but one would recognize the signposts of post-stroke recovery: apathy, impulsiveness, disengagement, a syndrome called Pseudobulbar Affect, which is characterized by inappropriate emotional outbursts. There’s an anecdote of Fetterman with his colleague Richard Durbin in which Fetterman disengages and starts mumbling to himself and walking in circles. It’s told to illustrate his unfitness for office. It could also be a sign of someone going through the mysterious ups and downs of stroke recovery.
The point is, two things can be true at the same time. Fetterman, in keeping with stroke recovery, can be a vastly changed man. He very well might be struggling. But the other thing that can also be true is that Fetterman is paying the price for what we used to reward in our politics — being a political maverick. Remember that painful debate against Dr. Oz right after his stroke, when Fetterman couldn’t put a coherent sentence together? Around that time, I wrote that his health limitations rendered him unfit for office. But the same operatives who disagreed with me then, who were assuring us he could serve, are telling us he’s unfit now?
What changed? Well, Fetterman in office has had the courage to challenge his base’s orthodoxy. Even before the stroke, he was pro-fracking, in keeping with his economic populism. He went to Mar-a-Lago to meet the President after the election, and the internet exploded. Now talking to the president is verboten? He gave Pete Hegseth the courtesy of a meeting — before casting his vote against the unqualified nominee. He was the sole Democrat to call for the expulsion of his indicted — now convicted — colleague, New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez. What used to be considered politically courageous — or at least independent — is now seen as betrayal or, worse, appeasement.
The New York mag piece references Fetterman’s biggest sin, according to the intersectional left: his fervent support for Israel. “The endless fights over Israel, which saw Fetterman draw further into himself, coincided with setbacks in his recovery regimen,” reports writer Terris.
You don’t say? Color me skeptical that all these stories being told sotto voce by former staffers about Fetterman’s unfitness for office today are motivated out of concern and compassion for him. “I know a hit piece when I see one,” New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, a progressive and staunch ally of Israel, posted on X. “The only reason for the coordinated campaign against Senator John Fetterman is his unapologetic pro-Israel politics. Let’s call it what it is. As someone who has struggled with depression my whole adult life, I can tell you that if you truly care about someone’s mental health, leaking hit pieces against them is a strange way of showing it.”
While we’re at it, journalistically, why grant anonymity to all those former staffers? Fetterman can’t retaliate against them — they’re no longer in his employ. Do they all share the same political disagreement with their former boss? If so, what does that say about motive? If so, why grant them journalistic whistleblower protection in the first place?
Let’s give props to Jentleson, who at least put his name out there. But even that was kind of weird. He wrote that long email to Fetterman’s doctor detailing his worries over the Senator’s health a year ago — when he himself stepped down. If he was so concerned about Fetterman, why the long delay in going public?
Maybe the real story here is that we’re finally getting a window into the Machiavellian nature of political staff. This is, after all, much of the same staff reported to have sought to convince Vice President Kamala Harris not to pick Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate last year, on behalf of Fetterman. And while we’re on the subject of shadowy staff power: Let’s not forget, as Jake Tapper’s forthcoming book is said to reveal, just how staffers in the White House conspired to keep Joe Biden’s cognitive decline from you.
The result of these anti-Fetterman machinations just might mean real career damage to a guy recovering from a stroke and related clinical depression. The fall of Fetterman, if that is what this is, is as epic as the myth of Joe Magarac, the late 19th century Pittsburgh steel mill legend who, “fakelore” had it, stood at seven feet tall and could do the work of 29 men.
Maybe we’re finding out now that John Fetterman is a type of political version of Magarac — a hulking product of legend-making all along. The only difference, though, is that the mythical Magarac never had to contend with hordes of true believer staffers intent on tearing down his legend.
