Former and current staffers told New York Magazine in an eye-opening exposé that they are growing increasingly concerned about Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman, painting the picture “of an erratic senator who has become almost impossible to work for and whose mental-health situation is more serious and complicated than previously reported.”
The deep dive into his “struggles” also revealed that his fervent support for Israel amid the Gaza war – which included him allegedly saying “kill them all” in meeting with progressive Jewish group – has led to clashes with his wife Gisele, who emotionally pleaded with her husband to soften his stance due to the bloodshed of the conflict.
The bombshell report, which features anecdotes about the senator possibly ignoring his medical regimen following a 2023 stay in the Walter Reed Medical Center for clinical depression, comes after Fetterman has seen a “major staff turnover” in the past year. In fact, one of the key sources in New York’s piece was Adam Jentleson, the lawmaker’s former chief of staff who said he is worried that Fetterman “won’t be with us for much longer.”
A year after Fetterman was released from his six-week stay at Walter Reed, which itself took place months after he was hospitalized for a stroke, Jentleson sent a 1,600-word email to the physician who had overseen Fetterman’s inpatient care for depression. According to the letter, which contained the subject line “concerns,” Jentleson wanted to sound the alarm to the doctor about the senator’s behavior.
“We often see the kind of warning signs we discussed,” Jentleson noted in the May 2024 email. “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.”
Furthermore, Jentleson claimed that Fetterman was missing his regular medical checkups, was driving recklessly, had once again become obsessed with social media – an issue the senator admitted had become an “accelerant” for his mental well-being – and had recently purchased a firearm.
“He says he has a biometric safe and takes all the necessary precautions, and living where he does, I understand the desire for personal protection,” Jentleson added. “But this is one of the things you said to flag, so I am flagging.”
In response to New York's story, Fetterman denied that there was anything wrong, saying that he is currently enjoying the “best version” of himself and that the turnover in his staff was standard for a Washington lawmaker. When pressed on concerns from staffers that he could be suffering a relapse during an interview with reporter Ben Terris, Fetterman said he did not “have any comment on that” and requested to “go off the record.” When asked later if the staffers were right or wrong, Fetterman responded: “I’m just going to say that it’s disgruntled employees saying things that are either untrue or, so, that’s kind of the business that we are in.”
Speaking to New York, Jentleson – who left Fetterman’s office last year – said his disagreements with the senator are “not political but rather an expression of genuine worry for Fetterman’s well-being,” adding that he still broadly believes in what Fetterman represents – which is “that Democrats would benefit from punching left more often and that voters crave a heterodox candidate willing to stick a thumb in the eye of his own party.”
Still, he stated that the reason he is now speaking out is that despite holding out hope that he would get back on track with his treatment, “it’s just been too long now, and things keep getting worse.”
Jentleson isn’t the only one to express his discomfort with Fetterman. Current and former Fetterman staffers expressed their concerns about the senator’s behavior and mood swings, along with his increasingly hawkish stance on the Gaza war and rightward shift.
“No one is saying every controversial position (for example, his respectful relationship with Trump) stems from his mental health — but it’s become harder for them to tell which ones do,” New York’s Ben Terris wrote. “When I spoke with Fetterman in April and shared those concerns, he denied anything was amiss.”
In the first few months after he was discharged from Walter Reed, which was precipitated by his unnerving actions at a Democratic retreat which saw him allegedly walk into traffic, Fetterman “seemed to be a changed man” and exhibited a “better mood” under his treatment plan, according to the report. He “threw himself into his work” and even chaired his first subcommittee.
At the same time, though, some things occurred that appeared to “sour” him on the Democratic caucus. After he was the first Democrat to call for then-Sen. Bob Menendez to resign following bribery charges, few others from his party joined in. Fetterman, famous for his hoodie and shorts combo, was also the focus of a Senate measure to force male senators to wear a coat and tie on the chamber floor.
But it was his overt support for Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attacks that has raised the most ire among liberals, his staff and even his spouse – who is vocal about her progressive views. In the first weeks of the war, 16 former campaign staffers wrote an anonymous letter saying the one-time progressive lawmaker’s unwavering support for support for Israel was a “gutting betrayal.”
“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,” New York reported. “‘That’s all propaganda,’ Fetterman replied.”
Gisele, who was “still visibly upset,” reportedly pulled that staffer aside later and asked if Fetterman’s team “were pushing him to take these stances for political reasons,” prompting the staff to assure her it was the opposite.
“If you’re pushing back on this, there’s no hope,” the staffer said they recalled Gisele saying. “This is horrible news.” She also reportedly texted another staffer that she was at her “breaking point and I can’t co-sign this any longer,” asking if she could get “some help in language to separate” herself from her husband’s Gaza stance.
Fetterman would downplay these purported disagreements with his wife in his conversations with New York Magazine, which also revolved around his controversial trip to Mar-a-Lago after Donald Trump’s electoral victory last year, saying she “has her own voice” and he isn’t changing her views.
“I think that’s very common in political marriage,” he added.
In her own statement for the story, Gisele took aim at Jentleson and said he was looking to damage her husband’s reputation for political purposes, claiming he was peddling “scary, untrue stories about John’s health.”
“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,” she stated. “Any alleged ‘concerns’ heard from me came straight from those lies, not from John’s doctors or my own eyes.”
In response, Jentleson told New York: “I stand by everything I said, and I hope Senator Fetterman gets the help he needs.”
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