Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., says media members have “weaponized” his absence on Capitol Hill to portray him as mentally unfit and that he has begun attending more Senate hearings and votes because of it.
“I’m showing up because people in the media have weaponized [my attendance],” Fetterman told the news outlet. “Simple things are turned. That’s exactly what happened.”
“The votes I missed were overwhelmingly procedural; they’re even called ‘bed check’ votes,” he added.
“I had to make a decision: getting here and sticking my thumb in the door for three seconds for a procedural vote or spend Monday night as a dad-daughter date.”
An NBC News report published earlier this month said Fetterman had missed nearly every committee hearing and regularly skips votes.
The Intelligencer reported that sources close to Fetterman said his behavior at times was jarring.
“One staffer told me there would be entire days when they couldn’t let anyone outside the office be around him because he was in ‘some sort of state’ and might say ‘really [expletive]-up [expletive] to constituents,” the outlet reported.
Fetterman in 2023 was treated for depression at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center following a stroke.
He told the Times that his doctor “warned years ago: After its public that you are getting help for depression, people will weaponize that.”
“Simple things are turned. That’s exactly what happened.”
He added: “It shook me that people are willing to weaponize that I got help.”
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