Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman (D) says former aides who voiced their concerns about his mental health have a “bizarre grudge” against him.
Fetterman, who was hospitalized in 2023 for clinical depression, nine months after he suffered a stroke, says he’s doing well and plans to serve out the rest of his Senate term, despite a warning from his former chief of staff that he’s acting erratically and could pose a danger to himself.
“For me, it’s like in the ‘Goodfellas’: everyone takes a beating sometimes,” he told video journalist Nicholas Ballasy when asked about allegations of erratic behavior made by former staff members to New York Magazine.
“It was just a dumb hit piece, and we’ve all moved on,” Fetterman said.
The 55-year-old first-term senator accused his former chief of staff Adam Jentleson and other former staff of holding a “bizarre grudge” against him.
“A bizarre, bizarre grudge,” he said when asked what motivated former staff to raise alarms about his health. “Like I said, we’ve all moved on.”
Jentleson, a veteran of Capitol Hill who previously worked for former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), shared his concerns over Fetterman’s health and behavior in a 1,600-word email to the senator’s doctor at Walter Reed Hospital, New York Magazine reported.
The former aide flagged symptoms the doctor had warned of when Fetterman was admitted to the hospital in 2023, citing “conspiratorial thinking, megalomania, highs and low lows, long, rambling, repetitive and self-centered monologues.”
The aide warned that Fetterman was preoccupied with the social platform X, which was viewed as an “accelerant” of his depression, and that he drove his car so “recklessly” that staff refused to get in a car with him.
“I think John is on a bad trajectory and I’m really worried about him,” he reportedly wrote in the email, which was sent in May of 2024.
Fetterman has had a high rate of staff turnover since coming to the Senate in 2023, and he’s angered members of the Democratic base with his staunch support of Israel’s military operations in Gaza and outreach to President Trump.
Fetterman visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago in January.
