John Fetterman explodes at journalist for asking whether he's 'off his meds'
John Fetterman got into it with a New York Magazine after being asked whether he is taking his medication.
The query was posed by former Washington Post political journalist Ben Terris, for a lengthy first feature for the publication.
It occurred towards the end of the interview, which was held in-person in Washington, DC.
Things got touchy when Terris brought up details he said he obtained from 'a number' of former Fetterman staffers - 'that they are worried that you are not on your recovery plan,' the journalist said. 'That you might not be taking your meds.'
The exchange came weeks after it was confirmed the increasingly Donald Trump-aligned Democrat was put on medications in February, following a meeting with then-Senator Sherrod Brown where his behavior was described as 'catatonic.'
In months since, the progressive has surfaced as an unlikely Trump supporter, and has offered him kind words at every chance.
This paved the way for Terris's rather pointed question. He asked whether Fetterman wanted to comment on what was supposedly coming out of his camp.
The Pennsylvania politician - who barely beat out Republican Mehmet Oz back in 2022 - responded with a resounding 'no.' He went on to eye two of his staffers, Terris said - recalling how Fetterman then adjourned for an abrupt break.
First, though, he offered the reporter some stern words.
He claimed that no one in his staff would know about his personal health situation and that anyone claiming otherwise was merely misinformed.
'There's not really anything to respond when that's just not accurate,' he said, shortly after fielding a question about Trump's mental faculties.
Terris, however, pressed on - saying that these former staffers told him 'they've witnessed ups and downs that could be associated with kind of a relapse.
'They also worry that the medication that you're on is not just for depression, but more serious drugs that if you're not on them would be a problem,' Terris added.
'Is there truth to that?'
At this point, Fetterman - who suffered a stroke whilst running against Oz - declared he had nothing to comment, before bringing the conversation off the record for the next few minutes.
That conversation remains shrouded, but once it ended, Terris was reportedly left out in a hallway with a few of Fetterman's aides.
Five minutes later, Terris was brought back into Fetterman's DC office where the interview was held.
'The office felt different now,' Terris wrote in his piece, remarking how it now felt 'quiet and tense.'
Fetterman sat in the same chair but was now 'slumped into himself,' he noticed - comparing the senator who checked himself into Walter Reed in 2023 to receive treatment for depression to 'a deflated parade float.'
'He avoided looking at me,' Terris further claimed, before breaking the silence.
'Anything to say about that?' he asked, referring to his earlier inquiry.
'There's not anyone that you're referencing who would be privy to my medical history,' Fetterman insisted again, before being asked whether he cared to comment on whether the unnamed staffers were right or wrong.
Fetterman - whose politics were once more aligned with those of Bernie Sanders before an apparent shift right in recent months - framed the insight as rumors from 'disgruntled' former staffers.
When asked why these employees may have been disgruntled, Fetterman shot back, 'For whatever reason.'
'There's a lot of people who just hide behind unnamed sources in articles,' he added.
The exchange ended there, with the interview ending minutes later.
'I feel like there's been kind of a tone shift here,' Terris told Fetterman as the interview waned, attempting to catch the senator's eye.
'Can you tell me what you're feeling? What you're thinking?'
The question spurred the senator to finally look at him, Terris recalled - before remembering Fetterman's response.
'No, everything's great,' he said, reportedly with little emotion. 'Everything's great. I don't know what you're referencing.'
During a sunnier point in the sit-down, Fettered offered some insight into his now notorious Mar-a-Lago meeting with the president - a summit that made him the first sitting Democrat to visit the then freshly sworn in conservative.
He said the January meeting went smoothly, lasting around 75 minutes.
Fetterman also said it strengthened his belief that Trump 's mental acumen is as strong as ever.
'His faculties haven't slipped at all,' he told the magazine, keeping course with his recent infatuation with the Republican.'
'It's not that I admire it - I acknowledge it, and if you don't, you do it at your own peril politically.'
He added how he now advocating for Trump to cut off nuclear negotiations with Iran - and get to dropping bombs on the country instead.
Fetterman, 55, is a staunch Israel ally. There have also been public disagreements with staff and fellow Democrats over such policies - as well as legitimate reports of a high turnover in Fetterman's office since he was elected.
Last May, Fetterman's behavior reportedly became so concerning that one of his since gone employees wrote a letter to the medical director of the traumatic-brain-injury and neuropsychiatry unit at Walter Reed asking for help with his boss.
'I think John is on a bad trajectory and I'm really worried about him,' he wrote, claiming that if things did not change, the senator 'won't be with us for much longer.'
'We do not know if he is taking his meds and his behavior frequently suggests he is not,' it continued.
The email further described '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.'
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