BRADDOCK, Pennsylvania — Sen. John Fetterman‘s (D-PA) mental acuity was just fine to Democrats.
Now, you would think he is former President Joe Biden 2.0 from the way his anonymous staffers are moaning.
But he is not.
Just over a month ago, I sat down with Fetterman, his Republican counterpart, Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), and a photographer in Fetterman’s living room for well over an hour. The interview later ran in the Washington Post. Fetterman spent additional time, at least half an hour, afterward giving McCormick a tour of his home, a former car dealership, and even taking pictures on the roof.
Fetterman was engaged, answered endless questions, and had a robust back-and-forth with McCormick over the direction of the economy and foreign policy. There were no signs of the early struggles Fetterman faced between May 2022 and February 2023, when he was in recovery from a stroke and depression. Present for the interview was the man I have covered since he ran for mayor of this old steel town in 2005 and won by absentee ballot.
In truth, the only time as a reporter I saw Fetterman not himself, not just regarding his health, was when he was recovering and other people were handling his messaging. During that time, I was the most critical of Fetterman’s candidacy. However, nearly all of that criticism was due to a stunning lack of transparency from his staff.
Fetterman was also engaged and animated last week when he attended a reception hosted by McCormick and his wife, Dina Powell-McCormick, at their home in Pittsburgh. It was a party celebrating my new book, Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America’s Heartland. Fetterman not only graciously attended, but he spent nearly 90 minutes talking with the over 150 guests, including business leaders, local elected Democrats, a ridiculous amount of my family, small business owners, and local Republicans.
He even gave an impromptu speech about the importance of local reporting.
Two days later, before the coordinated effort to undermine Fetterman emerged from his former anonymous staffers, a local teacher who saw that he attended the event texted me and said her students went to Washington, D.C., for a field trip and had a great time talking to Fetterman while visiting his Capital Hill Senate office.
In short, there is nothing wrong with Fetterman’s mental acuity. He has repeatedly demonstrated that the only thing wrong with him is that his staff could no longer control his message.
Fetterman has always and forever been a guy who is nobody’s guy. He has never earned an endorsement from the Democratic Party for any race he has run in, including his first Democratic primary in 2016 for the Senate, his successful primary run against a sitting Democratic lieutenant governor, where he made history by defeating him, or the primary race he won against Conor Lamb for the seat he currently holds.
Fetterman has handled the discussion around his mental acuity with much more grace than deserved. The motives are suspect at best, seemingly coordinated and designed to take him down. Why? That seems obvious. Fetterman has left the Democratic reservation over his unapologetic support for Israel and for securing the border. His March vote to invoke cloture, which helped meet the 60 votes necessary to end debate on the continuing resolution, moved it to final passage.
JOHN FETTERMAN WAVES OFF ‘HIT PIECE’ QUESTIONING HIS MENTAL FITNESS
Democrats thought they were getting one thing with Fetterman — they thought they could control him — but it is clear they never paid attention to him before his stroke or to his unique appeal to voters when he defeated Lamb or to the fact that he marches to the beat of his own drum.
Now that they have, Democrats in Washington, D.C., are trying to oust him. If he decides to seek reelection, I suspect Pennsylvania voters will once again teach Washington, D.C., experts and strategists that they still don’t get Pennsylvania.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
