You can tell, from recent videos, that Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman is still struggling to get his words out in hearings.
And as the recent experience of Washington Post economics reporter Jeff Stein demonstrates, there is a concerted ongoing effort to make it appear that Fetterman is more coherent and articulate than he is. (Notice that NBC News informed us, “Fetterman has spoken forcefully in recent days . . .”)
The recent revelation that California senator Dianne Feinstein’s health condition was significantly worse than her office’s press releases suggested indicates that the public and more skeptical corners of the media are correct to not automatically accept a lawmaker’s assessment that his health is fine, and that he can perform his duties.
But it is also worth noting an Associated Press profile of Fetterman published Sunday cites a Republican senator, Katie Britt of Alabama, who says she’s seeing significant improvement in her colleague’s condition since his treatment at Walter Reed.
Fetterman, Welch and Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama became friends at the orientation, and those two colleagues stayed close with him through his recovery. Britt says that in those early days, Fetterman would only really engage if she started the conversation, but they bonded over having children of a similar age and the fact that Britt’s former football player husband, Wesley, is the same height as the Pennsylvania senator. When Fetterman checked into the hospital, Britt’s staff brought food to his office next door.
Britt later visited him at Walter Reed, at his request, and found Fetterman to be totally changed. “When I walked in that day, his energy and demeanor was totally different,” Britt said in an interview.
Now, he’s loud and outgoing, she says -– even yelling “Alabama!” at her down a hallway when he caught sight of her last week, giving her fist bumps and asking about her husband and family.
“That shows you the difference that treatment can make,” Britt says. “It’s just incredible to see.”
We, the public, only get to see Fetterman during his intermittent appearances at hearings and his hoodie-clad appearances with other senators in press conferences. His colleagues see him more regularly, and in less formal settings. Maybe Fetterman really is slowly growing more functional and closer to his old self, and he’s just at his worst under the pressure of the cameras and lights.
Two things can be true: Fetterman and his campaign can have understated the severity of his life-threatening stroke — recall the senator’s wife characterizing it as “a little hiccup” on the night of the Senate primary — and he is offering a helpful role model about the value in seeking treatment for clinical depression.