Harrisburg, Pa. – Democratic senator John Fetterman Pennsylvania met last week with representatives of a teacher union in his native state when things were devoted quickly.
In a short time, Fetterman began to repeat himself, shouting and asking why “everyone is angry with me”, “Why do everyone hate me, what did I do?
As the meeting deteriorated, a staff member moved to finish and took visitors to the hall, where he broke crying. The staff were comforted by teachers who were shaken by Fetterman’s behavior, according to a second person who was informed separately at the meeting.
The interaction in Fetterman’s office in Washington, described to Associated Press by the two people who talked about her under anonymity, occurred the day before New York Magazine magazine published a story in which Fetterman’s former advisors and politicians issued concerns about the mental health of the senator.
That story included a 2024 letter, also obtained by the AP, in which Fetterman’s chief chief Adam Jentleson told a neuropsychiatrist that he had treated Fetterman for the depression that the senator seemed to be out of his recovery plan and was exhibiting an alarming behavior, including a tendency towards “long monologues, diameters, repetitive, repetitive and repetitive Egocentric. “
When asked about the meeting with representatives of the Teacher Union, Fetterman said in a statement through his office that “they had an energetic conversation about our collective frustration with the trump administration cuts to our educational system.” He also said that “he will always support our teachers, and I will always reject any attempt to convert the Pensylvania public schools into a coupon program.”
Fetterman earlier this week reached New York Magazine History as a “success piece of a source and some anonymous sources, so there is nothing new.” Asked by a journalist in a Senate corridor what would say to the people who are worried about him, Fetterman said: “They are not. They are not really worried. It is a successful piece. There is no news.”
Consisted by phone, Aaron Chapin, president of the Association of Education of the State of Pennsylvania who was at the meeting with Fetterman, said he did not want to discuss what a private conversation was.
The Meeting of the Union of Teachers adds to the questions that are raised about the health and mental behavior of Fetterman just three years after he survived a stroke on the 2022 campaign path that said almost killed him. Which was followed by a Fight with depression That took him to the National Military Medical Center of Walter Reed for six weeks, just a month after the Senate had sworn.
The scrutiny also comes a time when Fetterman, which now serves the third year of his mandate, It is being criticized For many base Democrats in their native state for being willing to cooperate with President Donald Trump, in the middle of the growing alarm of the Democrats for the actions and the Trump agenda.
Fetterman, who has been diagnosed with myocardiopathy, in which the heart muscle weakens and enlarges, and the auditory processing disorder, a complication of the stroke, has openly talked about its struggle with depression and urged people to get help.
In November, he told the host of Podcast Joe Rogan that he had recovered and there have been thoughts to damage.
“I was at the point where I was really, you know, in a very dark place. And I stayed in that game and I stay in front of you right now and I have this conversation,” said Fetterman.
But some who have worked closely with Fetterman question if their recovery is complete.
In the 2024 letter to Dr. David Williamson, Jentleson warned that Fetterman was not seeing his doctors, he had expelled the people who were supposed to help him remain in his recovery plan and might not be taking their prescription medications. Jentleson also said that Fetterman had been driving recklessly and exhibiting paranoia, isolating him from colleagues.
“In general, in the last nine months or less, John has dismantled the early warning system that we all agreed when he was released,” Jentleson wrote. “He has chosen fights with each person involved in that system and used those fights as excuses to expel them and separate them from any knowledge about their health situation.”
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where Williamson works, refused to make it available to an interview, citing privacy and confidentiality laws that protect the patient’s medical information.
Fetterman has long been a wildcard In the political sphere, forging a career largely on its own, regardless of the Democratic Party.
As mayor of a small town in Braddock, the fetterman who became Plains became a minor celebrity for its naked progressive policy, its appearance: it has 6 feet 8 inches and tattooed with a shaved head, and its unconventional efforts to return to the old city of depressed steel on the map.
He supported the insurgent democrat Bernie Sanders In the 2016 presidential primaries and extended from the left against the Democrat backed by the party in the primary of the Senate of 2016. In 2020, when he was a lieutenant governor, he became a main substitute in the cable television news programs for the presidential offer of Joe Biden and gathered a national political monitoring that made him a strong collection of funds of small dollars.
Chosen for the Senate in 2022, he has made waves with his informal dress – Hoodies and gym shorts – at work and in formal events and their willingness to punish other Democrats.
Fetterman returned to the Senate after his hospitalization in 2023 a much more outgoing legislator, frequently joking with his fellow senators and interacting with journalists in the corridors with the help of an iPad or iPhone that transcribes conversations in real time.
However, two years later, Fetterman is still a lonely in the Senate.
He has separated from many of his fellow Democrats in Israel’s policy and argued at times that his party needs to work with, not against Trump. Met with the nominees of Trump and Trump, and He voted for some – When other Democrats would not.
He has firmly maintained with the Democrats in other cases and criticized Trump for some issues, such as food and food aid.
A particularly scraping video of Fetterman emerged earlier this year in which he was on a flight to Pittsburgh, apparently arguing with a pilot about his seat belt.
Despite the consequences with the progressives about his firm support to Israel in his war in Gaza, Fetterman was still a personality in demand last year to campaign in the state of Battleground of Pennsylvania for Biden and, after Biden dropped his re -election offer, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Since Trump won the November elections, and Pennsylvania, things have changed. Many unique supporters have become Fetterman about their softer approach to Trump and their willingness to criticize other Democrats for lifting alarms.
However, he brought fetterman applause.
Bill Maher, presenter of the “Real Time With Bill Maher” political interview program, suggested that Fetterman should run for president in 2028. The conservatives, who for a long time had made Fetterman a goal for their progressive policy, have emerged in defense of Fetterman.
Even so, Democrats in Pennsylvania say they listen to people concerned with him.
“People are worried about their health,” said Sharif Street, president of the State Democratic Party. “They want to make sure they are fine. People care about him. There is a lot of love for him.”
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Associated Press’s reporter Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report. Follow Marc Levy in X in https://x.com/timelywriter.
