A day before an explosive New York magazine article raised questions about John Fetterman’s increasingly erratic behavior, the Democratic senator’s outburst during a meeting with constituents left a staffer in tears.
Fetterman was meeting at his office in Washington, D.C., with members of a teachers union from his home state of Pennsylvania when he reportedly began repeating himself, yelling, and asking why everyone was mad at him, the Associated Press reported.
“Why does everyone hate me, what did I ever do?” he demanded, slamming his hands on a desk.
As things deteriorated, a staffer moved to end the meeting. She ushered Fetterman’s guests to the hallway, where she broke down crying and was comforted by the teachers, a source briefed on the situation said.
Fetterman told the AP in a statement that he and the teachers union “had a spirited conversation about our collective frustration with the Trump administration and our cuts to the education system.” He said he would “always support teachers” and “reject anyone’s attempt to turn Pennsylvania’s public schools into a voucher program.”
Sources told the AP that the teachers were also rattled by the senator’s behavior.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Fetterman’s team for comment.
Aaron Chapin, the president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, declined to discuss the meeting with the news outlet, saying it was a private conversation.
The news comes amid concerns about Fetterman’s mental state and his recovery from a near-fatal stroke he suffered in 2022.
The stroke left him with auditory processing issues, and just weeks after he was sworn into office in early 2023, he was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and treated for six weeks for depression.
In a piece published last week, members of Fetterman’s staff told New York magazine they avoided working directly with the 55-year-old senator because he was prone to mood swings and paranoia.
The article describes high-risk behavior—including reckless driving, fights with his Fetterman’s wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, and aides’ concerns that the senator wasn’t going to medical appointments or taking his medication.
In May 2024, Fetterman’s former chief of staff Adam Jentleson wrote a letter to the medical director of the traumatic brain injury and neuropsychiatry unit at Walter Reed saying his boss was exhibiting warning signs including “conspiratorial thinking; megalomania… 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.”
“I think John is on a bad trajectory and I’m really worried about him,” he wrote.
Since taking office, Fetterman has lost his chief of staff, top communications officers, and legislative director, all of which he chalks up to typical Washington, D.C., turnover.
The senator has dismissed the New York story as a “hit piece” sourced with anonymous quotes from “disgruntled staffers.” He said he is following his doctors’ medical advice and denied being off his medication, saying it was “incredibly invasive” for the report to suggest otherwise.
Fetterman and some members of his staff have publicly clashed over policy, especially his unwavering support for Israel since it invaded Gaza in October 2023 in response to deadly attacks by Hamas.
The Democratic senator has also met with President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and voted to confirm some of the president’s Cabinet picks, drawing the ire of his fellow Democrats.
Despite questions about his fitness to serve, he has vowed not to quit the Senate and says he will serve his full term, which ends in 2029.
He’s not doing any traditional damage control, Politico reported, and most of his fellow Democrats have not made an effort to defend him. Several Pennsylvania Democrats in the House of Representatives said they hadn’t spoken to him recently.
Instead, strategists have begun privately discussing primary challenges and potential replacements, the outlet reported. They’re also reviewing the rules governing what would happen if he were to step down.
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