Senator John Fetterman’s election is a sign of the times.
Leaders in the Democrat Party, and seemingly those closest to him like wife Gisele Barreto Fetterman, were evidently determined to elect him no matter what.
But now the web of secrets surrounding him has started to unravel.
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman was struck by a stroke last year mere days before his state’s Democrat Primary.
Rather than bowing out to focus on health, his campaign forged ahead.
His handlers repeatedly claimed that his stroke was a trivial health blip and promised that he would soon be back on the campaign trail.
Instead, Fetterman remained hidden from voters until the state’s largest newspaper called him out saying the race should go to the Republican challenger, Dr. Oz of television fame, if Fetterman didn’t start making public appearances.
When Fetterman finally emerged, videos illustrating his inability to even speak after his stroke went viral.
NBC News’s Dasha Burns tried to help out Fetterman, painting a sympathetic picture of the impaired candidate.
She framed Fetterman as suffering from only minor auditory issues with the implication being that he would be fine to serve as a Senator if he won the election.
“Every now and then I’ll miss a word. Every now and then,” Fetterman claimed during the interview. “Or sometimes I’ll maybe mush two words together. But as long as I have captioning, I’m able to understand exactly what’s being asked.”
Despite Burns’ best efforts, she still managed to cause a stir since it was the first time it was confirmed that Fetterman couldn’t engage in any conversation without the help of a computerized transcription program.
It was blatantly obvious something was seriously wrong with Fetterman, but Burns’ report revealed the serious nature of his new limitations.
Then, in February, Fetterman was admitted to Walter Reed Medical Center to receive inpatient treatment for clinical depression.
The New York Times reported that Fetterman’s condition stemmed from the freshman Senator’s struggle to accept that he would never fully recover from his near-fatal stroke.
Fetterman later confirmed that report during an interview on MSNBC.
During his appearance on the network, Fetterman told MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough that the lowest point for his depression came after winning the election when he realized how severely his stroke affected him during the campaign—and that it would reshape his life moving forward.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) says the toughest time for his depression was after he was elected to the Senate:
"That's what's so insidious about depression … you might win and you still feel like you lose." pic.twitter.com/V1XmsOAs5w
— The Recount (@therecount) May 5, 2023
Clearly, that was information voters should have had when making their decision last fall.
While Fetterman might not have known it until after the election, there were plenty who could have made it known beforehand.
But his handlers, Democrat Party power brokers, and much of the institutional media refused to do so.
Fetterman is supposed to be a representative of the citizens of Pennsylvania but he’s spent almost as much—or more—time hospitalized as on the Senate floor.
No doubt, the reason Fetterman and his campaign hid the severity of his stroke from the public was that it would have been the deciding factor that would have thrown the race to his opponent.
Political Animal News will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
