Following a New York Magazine report, the Pennsylvania senator said doctors say his health is fine.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is responding to reports citing anonymous sources that he is behaving erratically, missing medical appointments, and driving recklessly, saying that such assertions are an invasion of his privacy.
Speaking to CNN in an interview on Tuesday, Fetterman said he is doing fine and that the speculation about his health is “really invasive” to his privacy.
“My doctors are like, ‘John is great,’” he said.
“And why are people talking about anyone’s personal medical things? It’s that, you know, I think most people would agree that’s really, really invasive.”
Earlier this week, New York Magazine, citing sources and an email written by Fetterman’s former chief of staff, released an article saying that he has been missing health checkups, had purchased a gun, and was driving recklessly. The article sought to paint the senator, who suffered a stroke while on the campaign trail in 2022, as becoming increasingly erratic.
Fetterman said the report “involved maybe two or three anonymous disgruntled staffers,” saying “false things.”
“My doctors have confirmed that that is not the case,” he said of the allegations about his behavior, adding that he is following a strict protocol prescribed by his doctors.
Not long after becoming a senator, Fetterman checked himself into the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment of clinical depression.
“I’ve been very front and center about my … depression, absolutely none of these other things, and it’s like so someone that was trying to accumulate my medical records and leak those things that’s part of this weird grudge for this hit piece,” Fetterman told CNN, in an apparent reference to his former chief of staff, Adam Jentleson.
“If you’re really concerned about someone, you could say, ‘Hey, let’s sit down. Can we talk?’ It’s not … like going to the media.”
The magazine quoted Jentleson as saying: “We do not know if he is taking his meds, and his behavior frequently suggests he is not.
