We should call this New York Magazine piece on Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) what it is—it’s a character assassination attempt. I never thought I’d write posts defending this man, but here we are. Politics can surprise some. John Fetterman has been just that coming out of Pennsylvania. He’s been disappointing, for sure. He’s a Democrat, but he’s been steadfast in his support for Israel and could be something that’s missing from congressional Democrats: a sensible voice. I made my digs at the man in the past, and there’s plenty to criticize him on, but this hit piece is laughably transparent, and the timing couldn’t be more shameless.
🚨WHOA: John Fetterman just slammed the slimy liberal fake news tactics he says were used by the "very left" New York Magazine in a hit piece against him. pic.twitter.com/vdcawdAswP
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 6, 2025
Fetterman becomes more grounded at the center and supports Israel against Hamas, and suddenly, he’s a reckless, mentally ill loon who has gripped his staff with fear. They even yank his wife into this mess. Past staffers came out of the woodwork to pull a Julius Caesar on their former boss. Also, let’s play ball here with the narrative—now they’re worried about mental health. We have had half-braindead Joe Biden for four years, but now we all must be worried about John in this piece that’s aimed at destroying his political career. What a joke. From family strife to allegations that he’s not following up on his recovery.
Media critic Steve Krakauer, formerly of CNN, nailed what was behind this piece:
Let's be honest about what the Fetterman NY Mag hit piece actually is:
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) May 5, 2025
Fetterman's former longtime aide Adam Jentleson wrote an email a year ago detailing health issues he saw. This stayed private because it was not politically expedient to leak it. Now his "friend" Ben Terris…
Fetterman's former longtime aide Adam Jentleson wrote an email a year ago detailing health issues he saw. This stayed private because it was not politically expedient to leak it. Now his "friend" Ben Terris uses it as the singular piece of evidence in his lengthy attack on Fetterman's health, in an attempt to push him out of the Senate.
Why? Because what's obvious to everyone is that Fetterman's health is improving, not declining. He was far worse than his staff let on back in 2023, but has improved, as expected, from the stroke, as is clear in his interviews and interactions.
At the same time, his politics have shifted to the middle. He is overtly pro-Israel in a party that is increasingly anti-Israel. He is open to talking to Trump and engaging with the other side at a time when his party wants to otherize the right. Jentleson and his other aides are Dem party operatives who will do anything to hurt their former boss.
Covering up his ailments was useful when he was a steady Dem party pawn, voting exactly how they want and saying exactly what they want. But now that he's a wildcard - almost an antagonist to the establishment - and a disruptor within his party, the stories get told about, again, what was happening well over a year ago.
Watch how the press uses this hit piece to try to push him out and cover his health issues in a way they covered up for years - because now it's socially acceptable. It's the Biden playbook all over again.
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It’s pieces like this that generate the hatred for the media they so richly deserve. At any rate, the libs on social media pounced on this one; what a bunch of cretins. Again, there’s plenty to criticize Fetterman on, but this is a cheap stunt and just flat-out surreal. Democrats are weaponizing mental health to take out their enemies—it’s not the first time.
After four years of cover-up around the Joe Biden Regency, Democrats are now leaking to media that Fetterman is cognitively disabled because ... he *thought* about voting to confirm Hegseth and supports Israel in the war launched by Hamas terrorists. https://t.co/yX6YN6YsWG
— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) May 2, 2025
Here are the passages from this lib rag (via NY Mag):
When John Fetterman was released from Walter Reed hospital in March 2023, Adam Jentleson, then his chief of staff, was proud of his boss for seeking help for what the senator’s office and his doctor had said was a case of clinical depression. His six weeks of inpatient care had been the latest medical setback for the Pennsylvania Democrat, who had had a stroke mere months before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022, nearly derailing his campaign against Republican Mehmet Oz. But a year after his release from the hospital, Fetterman’s behavior had so alarmed Jentleson that he resigned his position. In May 2024, he wrote an urgent letter to David Williamson, the medical director of the traumatic-brain-injury and neuropsychiatry unit at Walter Reed, who had overseen Fetterman’s care at the hospital. “I think John is on a bad trajectory and I’m really worried about him,” the email began. If things didn’t change, Jentleson continued, he was concerned Fetterman “won’t be with us for much longer.”
His 1,600-word email came with the subject line “concerns,” and it contained a list of them, from the seemingly mundane (“He eats fast food multiple times a day”) to the scary (“We do not know if he is taking his meds and his behavior frequently suggests he is not”). “We often see the kind of warning signs we discussed,” Jentleson wrote. “Conspiratorial thinking; megalomania (for example, he claims to be the most knowledgeable source on Israel and Gaza around but his sources are just what he reads in the news — he declines most briefings and never reads memos); high highs and low lows; long, rambling, repetitive and self centered monologues; lying in ways that are painfully, awkwardly obvious to everyone in the room.”
Fetterman was, according to Jentleson, avoiding the regular checkups advised by his doctors.
[…]
Members of his team told me this was an early warning sign that something was off with their boss. In early February 2023 — after Fetterman had indeed been sworn in — members of the Senate gathered at the Library of Congress for a caucus retreat. Fetterman, fresh off a hard-fought victory in the cycle’s marquee race, should have been riding high. Only he wasn’t. A staffer recalled getting a text from a person at the retreat asking if their boss was okay. Fetterman was sitting at a table by himself, slowly sipping a Coke and refusing to talk with anybody. Later that day, another staffer heard an alarming report from a journalist: Fetterman had just walked, obliviously, into the road and was nearly struck by a car.
An aide found Fetterman wandering on Capitol Hill a short time later. Worried that he had suffered another stroke, the staffer whisked him to George Washington University Hospital. Doctors there determined there had been no new stroke and that the “dizziness and confusion” he’d experienced was partly owed to severe dehydration. Fetterman also consulted with a psychiatrist there and, according to someone briefed by doctors, was prescribed medications for depression. Doctors discharged Fetterman, and his team told the press that he had been briefly hospitalized after “feeling lightheaded while attending a Democratic retreat.”
[…]
In the days after the October 7 attack, Israel declared war and retaliated with brute force, killing Hamas forces as well as thousands of civilians. In the U.S., progressives began calling for a cease-fire to at least pause the carnage. Fetterman felt differently. “Now is not the time to talk about a cease-fire,” he posted on October 18. “We must support Israel in efforts to eliminate the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered innocent men, women, and children.”
If his base was surprised by this, perhaps they hadn’t been paying enough attention. While Israel had not been a prominent issue in his various campaigns, Fetterman had been talking about his support for the country for years. “I’m not really a progressive in that sense,” he said while campaigning in 2022. “There is no daylight between myself and these kinds of unwavering commitments to Israel’s security.” Still, it wasn’t until October 7 that it became clear Fetterman was the most outspoken Israel hawk in his party, offering constant and unconditional support for the military action in Gaza. Early on in the conflict, 16 of his former campaign staffers wrote a letter — anonymously — saying they found his full-throated support for Israel to be a “gutting betrayal.” Jentleson had taken to defending Fetterman on X from such criticisms, posting, “The thing about being a staffer is that no one elected you to represent them.”
But it wasn’t just staffers who were upset. There was also Fetterman’s wife, Gisele, who had become something of a political celebrity in her own right: She is a kindhearted philanthropist (the proprietor of a “free store” in Braddock that gave away goods and clothing), a formerly undocumented immigrant from Brazil, and a vocal progressive. In early November, just weeks after the attack, Gisele arrived at her husband’s Senate office and, according to a staffer present, they got into a heated argument.
“They are bombing refugee camps. How can you support this?” the staffer recalled her saying with tears in her eyes.
“That’s all propaganda,” Fetterman replied.
Later, a still visibly upset Gisele pulled the staffer aside. She asked him if members of Fetterman’s team were pushing him to take these stances for political reasons. The staffer told her that the opposite was true: Many of them were as upset as she was. “If you’re pushing back on this, there’s no hope,” the staffer recalled her saying. “This is horrible news.”
A few days later, Gisele texted a different staffer: “I am at breaking point and I can’t co-sign this any longer. Id love some help in language to separate myself from this. Can anyone help me?”
[…]
In our conversation, Fetterman downplayed any supposed arguments with Gisele, telling me that she “has her own voice” and that he would never try to change her views, even if they differed from his. “I think that’s very common in political marriage,” he said. In a statement, Gisele suggested Jentleson was part of a conspiracy to damage her husband’s reputation, saying Jentleson fed her “scary, untrue stories about John’s health.” She added, “I would talk to John’s doctors about what Adam was telling me and they would be confused. Those doctors would tell me that their concerns were not with John, but with Adam. Any alleged ‘concerns’ heard from me came straight from those lies, not from John’s doctors or my own eyes.” In response, Jentleson said, “I stand by everything I said, and I hope Senator Fetterman gets the help he needs.”
My God. This was an exercise in character assassination, concern trolling, and backstabbing. And everyone can see it.
This article portrays Fetterman not only as a bloodthirsty racist but as a cruel, unhinged and possibly emotionally abusive husband. What a tragedy to have children with a man who has revealed himself to be this monster. Awful situation. https://t.co/AwWuzcUkxn pic.twitter.com/VoTYn3lIsQ
— Kate Willett (@katewillett) May 2, 2025
Someone save Gisele Fetterman https://t.co/Kb8zXMP9Lx
— Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) May 2, 2025
The NY Mag Fetterman hit piece was orchestrated by his diabolical camera thirsty devil wife, the most evil woman to ever exist. pic.twitter.com/lFOZJFofPK
— Jarvis (@jarvis_best) May 2, 2025
Jesus. John Fetterman should not be a U.S. Senator. pic.twitter.com/gXe9sZsInQ
— Aaron Regunberg (@AaronRegunberg) May 2, 2025
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