Just days after being hospitalized for feeling “lightheaded,” newly minted Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) checked himself into the hospital to receive treatment for “clinical depression,” according to his chief of staff.
Fetterman’s chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, said in a statement on Thursday:
Last night, Senator John Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to receive treatment for clinical depression. While John has experienced depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks…On Monday, John was evaluated by Dr. Brian P. Monahan … Monahan recommended inpatient care at Walter Reed. John agreed, and he is receiving treatment on a voluntary basis… After examining John, the doctors at Walter Reed told us that John is getting the care he needs. [Emphasis added.]
… On Monday, John was evaluated by Dr. Brian P. Monahan … Monahan recommended inpatient care at Walter Reed. John agreed, and he is receiving treatment on a voluntary basis.
“After examining John, the doctors at Walter Reed told us that John is getting the care he needs”
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) February 16, 2023
This follows the senator being hospitalized last week after he “began feeling lightheaded.” At the time, Fetterman’s communication director, Joe Cavello, said that “initial tests did not show evidence of a new stroke” but that more tests would be run.
The senator’s wife, Gisele Fetterman, said in pair of tweets on Thursday, following the news of her husband, “After what he’s been through in the past year, there’s probably no one who wanted to talk about his own health less than John.”
“I’m so proud of him for asking for help and getting the care he needs,” she added, asking everyone to please respect their family’s privacy during the “difficult time.”
This is a difficult time for our family, so please respect our privacy. For us, the kids come first.
Take care of yourselves. Hold your loved ones close, you are not alone.❤️
— Gisele Barreto Fetterman (@giselefetterman) February 16, 2023
On the campaign trail, the senator suffered a stroke before clinching the Democrat nomination for the U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania. However, as Breitbart News previously noted:
Fetterman [on the campaign trail] routinely appeared disoriented in public appearances throughout the campaign, regularly mispronouncing words and confusing sentences. After a disastrous interview with NBC Nightly News, reporter Dasha Burns drew criticism for noting how Fetterman’s stroke impaired him in a variety of ways, from his comprehension to his basic speech, to the point of him needing a closed captioning system during their in-person interview.
“Fetterman’s campaign required closed captioning technology for this interview to essentially read our questions as we asked them,” she told fellow reporter Lester Holt. “In small talk before the interview, without captioning, it wasn’t clear he was understanding our conversation.”
He went on to win the election against his Republican opponent, Mehmet Oz, in November, despite his poor debate performance.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.
