Democrats react with shock to damning Fetterman profile

When Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman was hospitalised for depression in 2023, many on Capitol Hill celebrated it as a moment of courage and a willingness to be open about mental health struggles. Now, a startling picture of relapse and its associated cost is being associated with him after a deeply sourced profile on Fetterman was published Friday in New York Magazine’s Intelligencer by reporter Ben Terris. Democrats on Capitol Hill have yet to comment. But the shock from the profile’s reporting was evident across social media and on political talk programmes. “He needs to resign,” The Bulwark’s Jonathan Last, a supporter of the senator who wrote that he “was the first person to suggest that John Fetterman could run for president”, said on The Secret Podcast with co-host Sarah Longwell. Longwell, who agreed, called the piece’s revelations “career-ending.” In the piece, Terris quotes extensively from Fetterman’s former chief of staff, Capitol Hill veteran Adam Jentleson. He also relies on statements from current and former employees in the senator’s office who describe a man harrowed by the challenges of his office and struggling to accept the help he may still require to recover fully.

Fetterman, who suffered a stroke during the final months of his 2022 run for Senate, pulled off a much-needed victory for Democrats even after a debate performance made clear that he was still suffering dire auditory processing issues and speech problems. But his recovery inspired many on the Hill and around the country. While he continues to rely to some extent on auditory transcription devices during conversations, he remains capable of speaking in press gaggles and in interviews. In private, however, things are reportedly far less encouraging. For the first time, New York Magazine reported that the senator was involved in a serious car wreck in May or June of 2024, one which injured his wife Gisele, after he ignored staffers’ concerns and got behind the wheel, then supposedly fell asleep. A video of him arguing with a commercial airplane pilot over the visibility of his seatbelt resurfaced this weekend after the profile was published.

And there are other interactions between the senator and those around him outlined in New York Magazine’s profile and other sources that are turning heads, including supposedly frequent and heated personal exchanges with his wife, Gisele Fetterman, over Israel’s siege of Gaza and other issues. The Independent contacted Fetterman’s office on Sunday for comment on the profile. According to Terris, Fetterman continues to struggle with the burdens of his office and in January, days after Trump’s inauguration, melted down with despondency over whether or not to support Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s now-embattled Secretary of Defense. Ahead of the vote, the senator, according to a staffer, raised the possibility of abandoning DC and refusing to vote at all. He also “spent part of the day locked in his office, fighting with Gisele and crying while FaceTiming with staff,” according to Terris’s reporting. “My no vote on Pete Hegseth speaks for itself. The rest is pure conjecture,” Fetterman told Terris of the above anecdote.

The behaviour led to Jentleson, who’d stepped down as chief of staff months earlier, to write a letter to the senator’s doctors prior to his summer 2024 car wreck, warning them of his increasingly unstable and reckless behavior. Jentleson wrote that he was seeing clear signs of Fetterman backsliding on his mental health recovery. Gisele Fetterman, for her part, told New York Magazine in a statement that Jentleson told her “scary, untrue stories about John’s health” and called his letter part of a conspiracy to damage her husband’s political reputation. That reputation may be in tatters after 2025. His votes to confirm several of Trump’s nominees, including Pam Bondi for attorney general, were the signs of ultimate betrayal for many Democrats. The extent of his enthusiasm for the Israeli military campaign in Gaza was apparent and drew a fresh wave of disgusted condemnations from progressives across Twitter and BlueSky, with his critics accusing the senator of harbouring a fervour for the carnage. Fetterman denied this to New York Magazine. “John Fetterman doesn’t deserve sympathy. He’s always been racist. Those in Pittsburgh and Braddock remember him pulling a gun on a Black jogger and holding him hostage,” wrote Tanisha Long, a Pittsburgh-based activist, on Twitter, referring to a 2013 incident.

But most of the reactions across Democratic circles over the weekend were shocked at the extent of the unreported issues the senator faces, including discussions over whether he retains the cognitive faculties and stability necessary to hold office. Some thought the concerns were clearly overblown.

“Despicable hit piece on @JohnFetterman — I wish I was surprised anyone would publish an obvious vendetta re: a man’s medical journey. What a weird medical stalker,” wrote Kyrsten Sinema, a former Democratic senator from Arizona. “It should not require mental illness for Democratic Party politicians to escape the iron grip of groups-think — Fetterman should go back on his meds to own the haters and have a long and successful career, other Dems should ask what they can learn from what’s worked for him,” added blogger and perennial center-left gadfly, Matthew Yglesias.

But many others took away from the piece an understanding that Fetterman remains clearly challenged by his continued mental health issues and the fast pace of politics in the second Trump era. “The Fetterman story is troubling-not just because of chaotic staff allegations, but because someone clearly still struggling with their mental health shouldn’t be in such a high-stakes role. The only solution is political: Fetterman should resign,” wrote Rotimi Adeoye, a Philadelphia-based Democratic operative who previously worked as a staffer for then-Senator Bob Casey. He added: “PA Dems need a robust primary.”