John Fetterman is back in the hospital again, this time for multiple weeks as he battles clinical depression (at least, that’s the official narrative). That marks the second time since taking office that the Pennsylvanian senator has been admitted for serious health issues.
The scene is a continuation of the 2022 campaign, in which Fetterman and his handlers did their best to hide the extent of his problems. An MSNBC reporter was famously lambasted for truthfully reporting that he was having trouble understanding people and seemed to be unable to process small talk. Then the debate happened; it was no longer arguable that Fetterman was completely unqualified and incapable of performing the duties of a senator.
Those who said that publicly were called “ableists,” with Fetterman’s wife leading the way, backed by a compliant media desperate to ensure Democrats held the US Senate. That gaslighting continues to this day, and the headlines covering Fetterman’s latest health crisis are simply unbelievable.
You see, the story here isn’t that a man and his surrogates scammed a state into electing him when he wasn’t healthy enough to do the job. The story is just how courageous he is for not being able to do his job. Apparently, the US Senate is now a rehab facility for people with long-standing (and previously undisclosed) severe clinical depression. Never mind that Fetterman’s stroke has left him very clearly permanently damaged in a way that will keep him from ever truly representing his constituents.
And while I’ve been hard on Fetterman’s wife, he ultimately bears the responsibility for choosing to remain in the race. Still, some in the press are now claiming that he has been “forced” to contend with the effects of his debilitating condition, while serving the political firestorm that is Washington, DC.
No one forced Fetterman to do anything. He’s not a bystander who woke up one day and just so happened to be a senator. He pursued this, he mislead his voters, and now he’s suffering the consequences of trying to do a stressful job that he can’t handle.
What truly blows my mind, though, is that these are the same press outlets that reported on Donald Trump walking down a ramp slowly and holding a glass of water with two hands, as if it was grounds for forced removal from office. Meanwhile, they pretend that Fetterman is just fine and shouldn’t resign despite how obvious it is that he’s not going to recover. The hypocrisy is off the charts.