(RightWing.org) – Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) has suffered several health setbacks over the last several years, starting with an irregular heart rhythm in 2017. Two years later, he collapsed while presiding over the Pennsylvania State Senate as Lieutenant Governor and suffered an ischemic stroke in May 2022. Then in mid-February, he checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center due to a bout of clinical depression, staying there until the end of March. In an unusual twist, the freshman senator tried to blame Republicans for his most recent health scare.
On May 2, CBS-affiliated news outlet KDKA-TV aired an exclusive interview with Fetterman, the first one he’s given since his release from Walter Reed. Host Jon Delano didn’t beat around the bush, asking Fetterman if he thought he was “really fit, mentally and physically” to return to his duties as a US senator.
Equally blunt, Fetterman responded, “Hell yes… that’s why I’m doing it,” an apparent reference to his return to Washington and the job Pennsylvania elected him to perform.
Continuing the conversation, Fetterman attributed his overwhelming bout of depression to his 2022 senate campaign and not his recent stroke. He told Delano that his depression kicked in “after the brutality of the campaign [from] the other side [Republicans],” adding that some people characterized it as one of the country’s “most vicious political campaigns.” Fetterman did point out he wasn’t blaming his Republican opponent Mehmet Oz in any way for his deteriorating mental condition.
John Fetterman Says His Depression Came From ‘Brutality Of The Campaign, The Other Side’ https://t.co/e8poQSkHYR pic.twitter.com/sU1kxkInYB
— Daily Wire News (@DailyWireNews) May 5, 2023
Fetterman concluded that portion of the interview by stating he didn’t feel he was “being the kind of senator” his constituents deserved or the kind of husband and father his wife and three children needed. According to him, those revelations compelled him to seek treatment for his depression.
No doubt, the rigors of campaigning in a swing state with the upcoming control of the US Senate at stake can take a toll on the healthiest of candidates. However, it remains unclear from a medical perspective what exactly triggered Fetterman’s depression.
As a side note, Fetterman’s chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, issued a statement a week after the senator checked into the hospital conceding that “John has experienced depression… throughout his life,” on an off and on basis. He added that his condition had worsened “in recent weeks,” leading the attending physician of Congress to recommend Fetterman’s admission to Walter Reed.
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