Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., on Tuesday dismissed concerns a former top staffer raised about his mental health as he managed depression and recovered from a stroke he suffered during his 2022 Senate campaign.
In a letter obtained by NBC News, dated May 2024 and addressed to Dr. David Williamson, Fetterman’s neuropsychiatrist at Walter Reed Medical Center, Adam Jentleson, the senator’s former chief of staff, wrote that he was worried his boss was “on a bad trajectory.”
“John frequently exhibits the kind of alarming behavior you told us to look out for when he was discharged (and has continued to do so since we last talked in December),” Jentleson wrote. “But the main thing I want to raise with you is that John appears to be off his recovery plan — at least mostly off it, and possibly entirely off it.”
New York magazine last week was first to report on the letter from Jentleson, who served as Fetterman’s chief of staff from Janu 2023 to April 2024, and then until June of 2024 as a senior adviser.
Fetterman dismissed Jentleson’s letter and the New York magazine article, which also included concerns about the senator’s well-being from other anonymous current and former staffers.
“It’s a one-source story, with a couple anonymous sources, hit piece from a very left publication. There’s really nothing more to say about it,” Fetterman told NBC News on Tuesday.
Fetterman was hospitalized for depression in Febru 2023 for six weeks. One of the main concerns raised by Jentleson in his letter was whether Fetterman was properly following his recovery plan after being discharged from Walter Reed.
“We do not know if he is taking his meds and his behavior frequently suggests he is not,” Jentleson wrote to Williamson, who oversaw Fetterman’s care during his hospitalization. (It’s not clear what medication Jentleson was referring to.)
“We often see the kind of warning signs we discussed: 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, such as swearing up and down that he didn’t say something everyone heard him say a few minutes prior,” Jentleson continued.
Asked about his message to people who express concerns about his condition, Fetterman told reporters on Tuesday, “They’re not, they’re actually not concerned, it’s a hit piece.”
Asked about the question Jentleton raised about taking medication, Fetterman declined to answer, but said, “Again, hit piece, anonymous sources, disgruntled staffers.”
“I stand by what I said and hope he gets the help he needs,” Jentleson said Tuesday.
Fetterman has been open about his struggles with depression after his stroke, telling “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in a 2023 interview, “People hear all their lives about ‘I can’t get out of bed,’ and you really can’t understand what that really means. You can’t get out of bed until it happens to you. And it did.”
“And I was scaring my children, and they were confused,” he added. “And, of course, my wife was concerned, and I think she understands better than the kids did.”
Fetterman’s Democratic colleagues have stood by him.
“He’s doing a good job, and he’s a good legislator,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told NBC News when asked if he had concerns about Fetterman.
Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said he had dinner with Fetterman and Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., two weeks ago. He said Fetterman “was doing pretty well,” describing him as “a special talent in our party” who “has a way of speaking to everyday folks that really connects.”
“Now, he went through an incredible health event, and it takes ongoing care,” Welch told NBC News. “I have no knowledge of it, but you don’t have to know much to know that that’s an ongoing challenge, and I want to be there to support him as much as I possibly can.”
