Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman said he has been pressured into returning to work amid his ongoing mental health struggles.
The Democratic senator, 55, said his doctor “warned years ago” that going public with his mental health struggles would invite criticism.
“After it’s public that you are getting help for depression, people will weaponize that,” Fetterman told The New York Times. “Simple things are turned. That’s exactly what happened.”
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“It shook me that people are willing to weaponize that I got help,” he added.
Amid reporting on his absence from the Senate, Fetterman has begun showing up to more committee meetings and hearings again. Fetterman attended a hearing for a committee he chairs with OpenAI Chief Sam Altman on May 8 after failing to appear all year, the Times reported.
Yet Fetterman also dismissed many of his senatorial duties, casting procedural votes and participating in committee work as “performative.”
Although he has been spotted at more Senate proceedings in recent weeks, Fetterman still reportedly shudders at showing up for the Senate’s Monday night votes, and has missed Thursday night votes to be with his father, who suffered a heart attack.
“The votes I missed were overwhelmingly procedural; they’re even called ‘bed check’ votes,” Fetterman told the Times. “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.”
Fetterman has also avoided hosting town halls with his constituents over fears of potentially being accosted by protesters.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Fetterman’s office for comment.
Fetterman sought treatment for depression in 2023 at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. On the heels of his treatment, last year Fetterman proceeded to miss more Senate votes than all but two senators: now-Vice President JD Vance and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who were both busy campaigning, the Times reported based on an analysis of the Senate’s roll call records.
Fetterman has also reportedly looked to avoid confrontation with his Democratic colleagues amid very public shows of cozying up to President Donald Trump.
NBC reported that Fetterman refused to meet with Sen. Patty Murray of Washington after he signaled that he was open to confirming Trump’s embattled Secretary of Defense pick, Pete Hegseth.
“He figured that she wanted to yell at him about it,” said one source familiar with the situation.
Top Senate Democrats reportedly held emergency meetings to strategize on how best to help Fetterman amid a bombshell report from The New York Magazine shedding new light on the depth of his health struggles after a May 2022 stroke.
“Every time I see him, I’m worried about him,” one source said. Fetterman rebuked the article as a “hit piece.”
Another Times analysis of Fetterman’s attendance this year found that the senator was the third most absent senator behind Murray and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Murray has been caring for her sick husband while Sanders has been speaking out against Trump’s agenda on his “Fighting Oligarchy Tour.”
Fetterman called being away from his family “the worst part of the job.”
Fetterman compared all the fretting over his mental health to media interest in 73-year-old Bill Belichick’s relationship with 24-year-old pageant contestant Jordan Hudson.
“This became the Belichick girlfriend story of politics,” Fetterman said. “It just keeps going and going.”
