The former chief of staff to Democratic Senator John Fetterman, Adam Jentleson, is concerned for the welfare of the Pennsylvania representative, reportedly fearing his mental health could cost him his life, the New York Times reported on Friday.
“I’m worried that if John stays on his current trajectory he won’t be with us for much longer,” Jentleson wrote on May 20 last year to a doctor who had treated Fetterman at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
“He does not see his doctors,” Jentleson wrote last year to the medical director who oversaw his 2023 hospitalization for mental health issues. “I am not sure when he last saw a cardiologist, but I don’t think he’s seen one since he was released. He long ago ordered us to stop putting regular drop-bys with Dr. Monahan on his schedule, despite the fact that he had agreed to those as part of the plan.”
Jentleson also claimed that Fetterson was struggling with “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.”
Aides also reported that Fetterman had become increasingly right-wing, particularly on issues related to Israel.
He was reportedly treated for clinical depression after suffering a near-fatal stroke.
Dangerous driving and errative behavior
Fetterman’s professional circle has reportedly shrunk, according to two other former aides also expressed concern. Some former staffers told the New York Times they felt fearful in the presence of the Senator on multiple occasions.
Part of Fetterman’s alleged erratic behavior and dangerous driving reportedly caused staffers to warn one another to never enter a vehicle with him behind the wheel.
Last year, the Democratic senator and his wife were hospitalized after rear-ending a woman while driving 70 miles an hour in a 30 zone. Additionally, Fetterman has reportedly copped two prior driving infractions in which he was going more than 20 miles per hour above the speed limit.
The former aides told the New York Times that Fetterman’s behavior has worsened over the past year.
Fetterman said in a statement that “my ACTUAL doctors and my family affirmed that I’m very well,” and the original article by the former aides was a “hit piece.”
Fetterman accused Jentleson and Ben Terris of sourcing “anonymous, disgruntled staffers with lies or distorted half-truths.”
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