Former Chief of Staff for Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, wrote a lengthy letter last year warning that he was so worried about the former boss's unstable behavior that the senator would go out of control and that mental health issues could take his life.
“I'm worried that if John stays on his current track, he won't be with us any longer,” former Chief of Staff Adam Gentleson wrote to the doctor who treated Fetterman on May 20 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Fetterman's actions are still a source of concern, according to a former aide who is still connected to his declining circle. Other former members of his staff spoke on condition of anonymity, reporting that their colleagues were sometimes scared of being in the presence of the Senator.
They have also been warned that if Mr Fetterman is behind the wheels due to his dangerous driving habits, he will never get into the car. His unstable and concerning behavior has worsened by an aide who noticed last year, but has been on the rise since the election, said those who spent time with him. It coincided with a time when his politics became more conservative as he saw the swing in his hometown of Pennsylvania for Trump.
“He hasn't seen a doctor,” Gentleson wrote last year to the medical director who oversaw hospitalizations in 2023 on mental health issues. “I don't know if he saw a cardiologist the last time, but I don't think he saw it since he was released. He ordered him to place regular dropbees on his schedule long ago, despite the fact that he agreed to them as part of the plan.” Dr. Brian P. Monaghan is a naval physician who has been serving as a doctor on the Capitol scene for nearly 15 years.
Gentleson's letter, obtained by the New York Times, was first reported by New York Magazine.
“My actual doctors and my family have assured me that I am very well,” Fetterman said in a statement. He called the New York magazine article “hit piece,” suggesting that Gentleson and the author of the article, Ben Terris, are “best friends” with a shattering co-x and “an anonymous, frustrated staff have a lie or twisted semi-truth.”
(Terris revealed in his article that Gentleson is a personal friend.)
A spokesman for Fetterman on Friday raised questions about Gentleson's motivation for making the public a profoundly personal letter given the already existing stigma on men's mental health issues.
Gentleson refused to respond.
Fetterman, the first term Senator from Pennsylvania who suffered a near-fatal stroke during the campaign, spent six weeks at Walter Reed, who was treated for clinical depression at Walter Reed in 2023. When he was released, Mr. Fetterman appeared to have turned the corner. He began to adapt to his life in the Senate, mixing it with reporters and colleagues in the hallway, and seeing it as a unique responsibility to speak out about mental health issues.
“It's a burden, but it's a privilege to talk about it,” he told the New York Times in a 2023 interview.
His stroke-related auditory processing problems also appear to be reduced, and Fetterman began casually talking to people without resorting to audio transcription.
When he adjusted to his life as a senator, Fetterman also became conservative not only in Israel, but also in a variety of other issues. The senator was the first Democrat to meet Trump at his post-election Mar Lago Estate, and at the moment his state was shaking even further to the right, it seemed he thought he was politically savvy to find a common ground.
Fetterman, an avid Fox Newswatcher, seriously considered the vote to confirm Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses, former weekend host of “Fox & Friends,” according to a former aide. The vote would have signaled the green light to ministers who faced charges of women of excessive drinking and abuse that made it difficult for a Republican senator to even reach behind him.
It is not clear to everyone who worked closely with him that Fetterman's political transformation, or his current challenges, directly related to the mental health crisis that first sent him to the hospital two years ago. However, in his letter, Gentleson explains his unstable behavior. He says it could be the result of the senator failing to follow the medical plan, such as taking prescription medications outlined by doctors.
“John has kicked out everyone who is supposed to help keep him on a recovery plan,” Gentleson wrote to Dr. David Williamson, medical director of Walter Reed's neuropsychiatry/traumatic brain injury unit. “I don't know if he's taking medication or not. His actions often suggest that he isn't.”
In the letter, he said that people around Fetterman often witnessed “warning signs” that doctors warned, such as conspiratorial thinking, hype publicity (for example, he claims to be the most knowledgeable source of Israel and Gaza, but his source is what he reads in the news – he refuses most briefings and never reads Memos. A monologue lying in a painful, awkward and obvious way for everyone in the room.”
He said Fetterman spent most of his time scrolling over his phone to formulate tweets, and that he was “tensive” with his wife Gisele.
“He is engaged in dangerous behavior. He drives recklessly. He recently bought a gun,” Gentleson wrote, pointing out that purchasing a firearm is a warning sign that he was being told to report to a medical professional.
In a statement in New York Magazine, Gisele Fetterman challenged the allegations in Jentleson's letter, accusing her of lying about her husband's condition.
Over the past few months, Fetterman has introduced her husband to a united front. She accompanied him to a post-election visit to Mar-A-Lago and a meeting in Israel last month with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Still, many of his staff are worried about working for Mr. Fetterman. His driving remains an area of ​​particular concern.
The Senator has long been known as a reckless driver, sometimes going above 70 mph in a 30 mph zone. Last year, he, his wife, and a 62-year-old woman, were hospitalized after retreating the woman's car on the Eisenhower Memorial Highway in western Maryland.
Police report states that Fetterman was driving with a message speed limit of 70 mph. Pennsylvania records showed Fetterman had at least two prior driving violations in a state that was more than 20 mph above the speed limit.
