The Democratic lawmaker, who has struggled with his mental and physical health, is reportedly demonstrating some worrying behavior. Both he and the Keystone State would be best served if he resigned.
The allegations about his behavior are credible and worrisome.
Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who has dealt with mental health issues, is the subject of recent New York Magazine and New York Times reporting based on both named and unnamed former aides saying they are worried about his well-being.
The Times anchors its reporting around a letter Fetterman’s former chief of staff wrote last year to a doctor who had treated the senator for his depression, expressing concern that his life could be in danger.
“I’m worried that if John stays on his current trajectory he won’t be with us for much longer,” wrote Adam Jentleson, the former Fetterman official, to a doctor who had treated the Pennsylvania lawmaker at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
In 2023, Fetterman spent six weeks at Walter Reed receiving treatment for his clinical depression, a condition that was reportedly exacerbated by the stroke he suffered a year earlier while on the campaign trail.
Though Fetterman has since been open about his mental health challenges, former and current aides note that lately, he hasn’t been as attentive to his illness as he should be.
Jentleson also wrote that he wasn’t certain whether Fetterman was taking his medication and was exhibiting worrying behavior that has frightened some to be in his presence, particularly while the Democratic leader exhibits manic behavior like erratic, fast driving.
[Read The Times story for additional details about Jentleson’s claims.]
Late last year, Fetterman, his wife Gisele, who refuted claims the former aide made about her husband and a 62-year-old woman were hospitalized after the senator rear-ended her car in Maryland while driving well over the 70mph speed limit.
These and other examples cited in the reporting – Fetterman also reportedly recently bought a gun, never a smart purchase by a depressed person – have many in the senator’s circle and his supporters worried about him.
And as well, they should be.
He’s seemingly not doing well, according to those who know him well, and his alleged inattentiveness to his mental health is making matters worse.
Fetterman is said to be pushing away those who want to help keep him on the road to recovery, which makes convincing him to do the right thing for himself and his Pennsylvania constituents, including myself, all the more difficult.
I don’t know Fetterman, having only interviewed him once in my career while he was Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor. And though I spent more time speaking with his wife, Gisele, for the Postindustrial Podcast a few years back, I don’t know her well either.
But I do know about depression, particularly after suffering a physical health scare.
Back in 2010, after I was seriously injured while reporting in Afghanistan, I became extremely depressed. And the worse I felt, the more I pushed away those who expressed concern about my erratic behavior, like riding my motorcycle in the dead of winter from Washington, DC, to Miami in a snowstorm with a missing side view mirror and a messed up right eyeball.
I was not only a danger to myself, but I was selfishly tormenting those who didn’t want to see me do myself further harm.
I look back on that time with shame and self-loathing for putting them through so much unnecessary grief.
However, at the time, my depression and manic obsession with “feeling better” at all costs and in dangerous ways blinded me to the consequences of my actions.
From afar, I see shades of that blindness in the senator’s alleged behavior. If he is acting as his former chief of staff contends, he is a danger to himself and of little use to the Pennsylvanians relying on him to be their voice on Capitol Hill.
Fetterman and Pennsylvanians would be better served if he stepped down to rededicate himself to getting better while someone else represented voters back home.
Leaving now would illustrate that he cares about them and himself more than the office he holds, a gesture of selflessness and leadership that would cement his legacy as an honorable servant of the people.
