The wife and staff of stroke-damaged freshman Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) arranged a media rollout for his discharge from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland as he ended six weeks of inpatient treatment for “severe clinical depression” where he had been held incommunicado.
The rollout featured an interview with Jane Pauley for CBS Sunday Morning taped two days before his Friday release that aired this Sunday morning in which Fetterman made a shocking admission about his condition that had been hidden from the public after the November election and before he entered the Senate in January: “I had stopped leaving my bed. I had stopped eating. I was dropping weight. I had stopped engaging some of the, most things that I love in my life.”
A photo of an emotionally flat looking Fetterman was posted Friday when his release from Walter Reed was announced by his staff:
Screen images from the CBS Sunday Morning interview:
Pauley said that people told her when Fetterman was sworn in on January 3rd that he looked “miserable and lost,” Fetterman said he was “definitely depressed.” Fetterman said that he was controlled by his staff during the six weeks before he went to Walter Reed, “I just showed up where my staff said.”
Fetterman is noticeably improved from when he entered Walter Reed on February 15. He can speak. He eats and drinks. He can hear better. His doctor says his depression is in “remission.” But can he function at the level needed for a U.S. Senator? When Gisele talks while seated next to her husband, it becomes clear he is still not all there as the side by side contrast between a normal, healthy person and a brain-damaged, heavily medicated person is shown, even allowing for the closed captioning he still needs for conversation.
Video excerpt:
https://twitter.com/CBSSunday/status/1642515864325955589
The medical summary by Dr. David Williamson who treated Fetterman at Walter Reed that was released on Friday stated that in the previous eight weeks before admission (starting after the November election) that Fetterman had gotten progressively worse to the point he was not getting out of bed and was not eating, drinking or speaking. Yet it wasn’t until he was hospitalized for “lightheadedness” the week before he went to Walter Reed that it was decided Fetterman needed help. Fetterman’s wife Gisele and chief of staff Adam Jentleson damn near killed Fetterman by running him into the ground so the Democrats could have the controlling 51st vote in the Senate.
Fetterman’s crash and burn began at home even before he entered the Senate, yet Gisele and his staff did not seek help for him until he collapsed in February and couldn’t be pushed any further.
In the interim between the campaign and being sworn in, at home in November, December, depression started gathering strength. Is that correct?” asked Pauley.
“Very much. Very much. I had stopped leaving my bed. I had stopped eating. I was dropping weight. I had stopped engaging some of the, most things that I love in my life.”
Including time with Gisele and their three children, aged eight to 14. “I had a conversation with my 14-year-old and he said, ‘Dad, what’s wrong? We’re great, we’re here, and you won!’ An incredibly sad moment where my 14-year-old can’t possibly understand why you can’t get out of your bed.”
Pauley said, “Someone you love as much as you love your son couldn’t make you get out of bed. Couldn’t make you not be depressed. You stayed in bed.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
But he went to Washington, and on January 3 was sworn in.
Pauley said, “People who know you say that that day you looked miserable and lost.”
“Yeah. Well, I was definitely depressed,” he laughed.
Gisele said, “I think with depression, you’re always waiting for, ‘Oh, that’s the thing that’s gonna change it,’ right?”
Fetterman admits he is controlled by his Senate staff:
Fetterman stopped eating and drinking. “I was at a Democratic retreat, and many of my colleagues were coming up to me and asking me, ‘Why aren’t you eating?'”
Pauley asked, “Did you care if you were there, or anywhere? Or nowhere?”
“I just showed up where my staff said,” he said.
“Robotic?”
“Yeah. Exactly, yeah.”
Fetterman’s doctor at Walter Reed gave a complete overhaul of his stroke recovery treatment, adjusting blood pressure and other medications, and testing his hearing resulting in him being fitted with hearing aids. It makes one wonder what his previous doctors were doing and why his wife Gisele wasn’t taking better care of her husband. Gisele decided to become a firewoman last year and is now going out on calls this year.
Fetterman’s campaign donor Doctor Clifford Chen released a statement last October that Fetterman was fit to serve, yet he didn’t last two months in the Senate before flaming out.
The new and improved Fetterman media rollout ended with Pauley raising presidential ambitions for Fetterman.
Pauley asked, “Your trajectory, from mayor to lieutenant governor, United States Senator, at 53 in politics, that’s a young man. Can you have aspirations? Can you serve beyond the United States Senate?”
“You know, my aspiration is to take my son to the restaurant that we were supposed to go during his birthday but couldn’t, because I had checked myself in for depression,” Fetterman replied. “And being the kind of dad, the kind of husband, and the kind of senator that Pennsylvania deserves, you know, that’s truly, that’s what my aspiration is.”
Fetterman gave a good answer, but one wonders if the question was suggested by his wife or staff given that Pauley knows he hasn’t even proven himself capable of being a senator. Was this the whole point of the interview, knowing that millions of Americans will vote for brain damaged Democrat politicians for not just the Senate but to be President?
