EXCLUSIVE John Fettermans mom sets the record straight on embattled sons health...and if hes really been taking his meds
Its the massive question dogging US Senator John Fetterman amid sensational new health concerns over his ability to serve – Is he taking his meds?Now DailyMail.
Its the massive question dogging US Senator John Fetterman amid sensational new health concerns over his ability to serve – Is he taking his meds?
Now DailyMail.com can reveal the answer, according to the 55-year-old politicians devoted mother Susan.
When asked if she believed he was skipping medication following his 2022 stroke and disturbing reports of manic behavior in his battle with depression, she replied firmly: No I dont.
Speaking at Fettermans childhood home in a rural part of York, Pennsylvania, the 76-year-old mother continued: Hes a great person and hes doing well. Im not concerned about him. Hes doing what he enjoys doing.
I dont know if youve seen him lately but he looks great. His weight is good, he walks every day… he is good and we love him.
The mom spoke out following a damning article in New York Magazine that painted a picture of the 6ft 8ins Democrat being almost out of control and ignoring doctors.
It detailed how Fetterman has recently appeared despondent at times while acting manic and unhinged at others. Staffers said they no longer recognized the man they knew.
The article also revealed that after a March 2023 stint for depression at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington, serious concerns were raised over his lifestyle.
Fetterman has been beset by tales of declining health and a split in his marriage after former staffers spoke to New York Magazine, disclosing troubling spats with his wife
Susan Fetterman (right) told DailyMail.com that she didnt believe he was skipping his medication amid concerning reports about his alleged escalating behavior
The doting mother also brushed off the rumors surrounding trouble in her sons marriage to Gisele, saying she texts and calls his wife and that she didnt know anything about the reported friction surrounding their different views on Israel
He eats fast food multiple times a day… we dont know if hes taking his meds and his behavior frequently suggests he is not, his former chief of staff Adam Jentleson wrote to the traumatic brain injury and neuropsychiatry director in a reported urgent communication.
We often see the kind of warning signs we discussed. Conspiratorial thinking; megalomania; highs and lows; long, rambling, repetitive and self-centered monologues; lying in ways that are painfully, awkwardly obvious to everyone in the room.
Jentleson started a 1,600-word email: I think John is on a bad trajectory and Im really worried about him. He said if things did not change, he was concerned Fetterman wont be with us for much longer.
His mother Susan, who raised Fetterman with her 79-year-old husband Karl in the rural idyll where theyve lived since 1975, dismissed that version of her son.
She blamed ex-staffers with an ax to grind for the article, which has been branded a hit piece by Fetterman himself.
I guess some of them sound like theyre really mad at him. He travels to the beat of his own drum, you know, with the hoodies and everything. Everybody made a big fuss over that.
And one day its a fuss, the next day its gone.
People will always think what they want to think and listen to what they want to listen to. He is just a really, really good person and he cares about people. And right now, everybodys got an ax to grind.
Susan said the former staffers who came forward with allegations about the Senators health and tumultuous family life had an axe to grind
The Fetterman family together at the White House in 2022. Gisele and their three children have been staying at the family home in Braddock
His former chief of staff Adam Jentleson was the main narrative point in the New York Magazine article and said he contacted Fettermans doctor out of concern
John calls every week. And when he is in DC and the Senates in session he drives up here and we have dinner with him.
The mom also deflected any discussion about her sons rumored marriage rift with 43-year-old wife Gisele Barreto Fetterman, who became a political star herself during his narrow Senate victory over Republican TV star Dr Mehmet Oz.
This has intensified following an exclusive DailyMail.com story revealing the spouse isnt wearing her wedding ring back at the family home in the depressed steel town of Braddock, Pennsylvania.
The couple are also reported to be at dramatic odds over the senators support for Israel following the October 7, 2023, invasion by Hamas and the military response.
I dont know anything about any friction over Israel. I can tell you, I stand with Israel, said Susan.
We text and talk to Gisele. We also go to Braddock. Thats a neat place theyve got there. They took an old car dealership and turned it into a home.
The moms defense of her son comes as he faces the biggest battle of his political career representing his home state of Pennsylvania apparently without his devoted wife by his side.
DailyMail.com has revealed that Gisele is now spending the bulk of her time back in Braddock, just a four-hour drive from her husbands DC power base where she hasnt been spotted all year.
DailyMail.com has revealed that Gisele is now spending the bulk of her time back in Braddock, just a four-hour drive from her husbands DC power base where she hasnt been spotted all year
The Edgar Thomson steel plant - which belches out smoke from multiple chimneys 24 hours a day – dominates Braddock. The Fettermans live in a former Chevy dealership directly across the street
The woman who came to America as a seven-year-old undocumented migrant from Brazil is now seemingly concentrating her energies back in the tough community where Fetterman was mayor and the couple have lived since marrying in 2008.
When we caught up with her this week in the Pittsburgh suburb, she batted away questions about the state of their union.
Asked about the missing wedding band, she said: Im a firefighter, did you know that? If I wore my wedding ring to fight fires, that would be dangerous. Thats why its not here.
In recent years, Gisele has volunteered as a part-time firefighter with Braddocks River Edge Volunteer Fire Department.
The family home they share with their three children is a quirky conversion of a former Chevy dealership. It sits directly opposite the monstrous Edgar Thomson steel plant, which belches smoke from multiple chimneys 24 hours a day and creates an intense noise that dominates the area.
Our conversation with Gisele occurred as she was working at the food bank she runs in the community outside The Hollander Project - a co-working space and business incubator for women entrepreneurs.
Affable and bubbly, she smiled as we asked how she and her husband were faring amid the claims that his behavior has been increasingly erratic.
Im a private citizen and Id rather not say anything about this at all, she said, good-naturedly swatting away every question – yet continuing to fan the flames of uncertainty by not issuing direct denials.
Fetterman described the New York Magazine article as a hit piece
Gisele Barreto Fetterman made no attempt to hide her left hand which no longer has the ring husband John gave her when they married in 2008
Although one subject, as we stood in the drab steel towns devastated-looking main street, did spark a more positive reaction.
Unbidden, Gisele held up her phone, instantly flicked to a previous story we had published on her and said: I love this photo of me. Keep using ones like that.
Giseles failure to deny any widening gap between her and Fetterman comes in stark contrast to a January 2024 Daily Mail interview during which he branded rumors of a split outrageous. The senator insisted they were closer than ever.
However, New York Magazine painted a dramatically different picture.
In one alleged incident, a Fetterman staffer sent Gisele a text message saying Everyone here is feeling alarmed over his behavior. This was after the Senator had handed over his social media passwords as part of a recovery plan.
Gisele is reported to have replied: [The doctor] had also said that [Fetterman] was fighting to get access of the Twitter account... Please promise me that hell never have access.
I told him I dont want to talk to him until his blood is tested, she allegedly added.
Another staffer also reportedly recalled overhearing Gisele on speakerphone in December 2023 demanding of Fetterman: Who did I marry? Where is the man I married?
Former staffers said the couples most recent row happened because Gisele didnt want to accompany Fetterman to Mar-a-Lago to meet Donald Trump after his election victory
And a more recent blow-up between the couple came after Fetterman took a last-minute trip to Connecticut in March without telling anyone, staffers say.
According to the NY mag report, Gisele and senate staffers had no idea where her husband was or what he was up to. Aides were said to be at a loss for what to tell the mom when she demanded to know why he was missing one of their kids birthdays.
I took a weekend trip in March to visit the grave site of my friend from grad school who died in 1993 — a trip my staff and family knew about, Fetterman said in response to the magazine.
More recently, Fetterman and his wife reportedly fought because she didnt want to accompany him to Mar-a-Lago to meet Donald Trump after his election victory.
It was a whole saga, a former staffer said. She wasnt going to go and they had fights about it.
But he eventually convinced her to go to Mar-A-Lago by saying it was a good opportunity to showcase what a model migrant looked like in a bid to get the then president-elect to soften his views on undocumented immigration.