By all accounts, he’s not doing well health-wise and in fact seems to be deteriorating in many ways, physically and mentally.
This is where I first saw this story. They also mentioned a Colorado congresswoman who had repeated expressed suicidal ideations, and that person appears to be Yadira Caraveo.
I guess this is the all-out war on electable Democrats that David Hogg promised. Plant some hit pieces on a candidate with normal Democratic voter beliefs who managed to win in the hugely valuable swing state of Pennsylvania, run a Yale grad who’s never had a real job instead and have them tour Lancaster County promising to confiscate guns and support Hamas, act surprised when a Republican wins the seat by 10%. Wonderful plan.
It’s quite the conspiracy, it’s pulled in the New York Times, New York Magazine, Fetterman’s own staff, and his wife.
https://www.jezebel.com/john-fettermans-wife-reportedly-told-staff-she-was-at-a-breaking-point
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/02/us/politics/john-fetterman-mental-health.html
What delusions are you babbling on about now?
But all the Really Smart People at the SDMB know that the New York Times is part of the Trumpist conspiracy! That’s why they spread those totally not at all true rumors that Biden was losing it. So let’s all rush immediately to the defense of the next Democrat who’s been observed slipping and keep loudly insisting that the Emperor’s new clothes look totally snazzy, because that worked out SO FUCKING WELL last time.
I don’t see how any of the issues Biden’s cognitive decline presented are relevant to a Senator.
The president has to make certain crucial decisions himself in warfare so on. The president has to go on a grueling campaign schedule. The president has to project strength to the world. The president has to yield the ballot line when he can’t do those things and allow for the selection of a viable candidate instead of waiting until the disastrous Kamala Harris was the only legal option.
Fetterman doesn’t have to do any of those things, and the evidence for his cognitive impairment is basically rumors and innuendo from far-left bagmen like Cenk Uygur. Every video of him shows him following conversations and speaking perfectly normally. Of course it’s better for Dems to have even someone like Strom Thurmond (whose inner circle continued to put his hand on the button for the Republican agenda for years after he was basically dead) instead of nominating the kind of candidate that Hogg, Uygur, and Jezebel would prefer and losing the fucking election to a MAGA supporter. That this could be disputed in good faith beggars belief. And Fetterman isn’t anywhere near that ballpark.
What exactly is the goal here other than left-wing saboteurs who are obsessed with loser issues like Israel and guns becoming as incensed as they always do at Democrats who win elections by appealing to normal voters?
The actual claim in the link - “Jezebel said that New York Magazine said that the New York Times said that an anonymous staffer said that Fetterman’s wife disagrees with him about Israel” - is not “Fetterman is mentally incompetent, his own wife said so!” It’s not even close to it, it’s basically as relevant to it as “I saw a seagull today.”
If his health is bad I’m sorry. However, he has turned his back on the people that voted him into office. Unacceptable.
Progressives don’t “vote Democrats into office,” they work to sabotage them at every turn with every underhanded tactic imaginable. Fetterman owes them nothing and the idea that he could conceivably betray them when they have been working against him for his entire time in office is nonsensical.
Fetterman’s rhetoric and legislative record has been consistently pro-abortion rights, pro-LGBT, and in favor of expanding health care coverage. He’s delivered on the meaningful liberal issues he campaigned on for the people who actually voted him in (normal Democrats and swing voters in Pennsylvania).
No, he’s not going to join David Hogg’s jihad against gun owners or move into a tent on the lawn at Columbia and caterwaul about Israel. And he never said he would do those things, which are stupid, deeply unpopular positions that are electoral poison in Pennsylvania. He’s going to keep being a regular Democrat focusing on regular Democratic issues for the regular Democratic base, no matter how much you want to see him replaced with a crazy leftist candidate who loses to a Republican.
It was one of three links I posted. One of the others is the actual NY Mag article which had Fetterman’s former chief of staff on record. But hey, it’s all just a conspiracy.
Since you brought up Hogg, got any links that show he’s involved in any of this?
Moderating:
The OP’s discussion was of Fetterman’s reported mental and physical health issues. Let’s keep it narrowly focused on said topic. The side tracks on Cenk Uygur and other politicians, and Hogg’s comments, sans cites linking them, are outside the frame of the OP. If @songsoflovetrouble wants to continue to talk about such, they’re free to spin off their own thread.
If you are responding to something in a thread that is basically off-topic or likely to lead to a hijack, try this:
How to Reply as a linked Topic:
Click Reply, in the upper left corner of the reply window is the reply type button, looks like a curving arrow point to the right.
Choose Reply as linked topic and it starts a new thread. As an example, you can choose GD, IMHO or The Pit for it.
That is actually the best method.
I want all posters to dial back the tensions on the subject, @Thing.Fish’s comments are far to close to attacking the poster, not the post.
This is just a guidance, not a warning. Nothing on your permanent record.
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One thing I know about him is this. He has atrial fibrillation (AF). I have AF, diagnosed in 2005. I have taken a blood thinner since then. When I started my GP told me about a patient with AF who had stopped taking the thinner and, 8 months later, suffered a stroke (which is what the thinner is supposed to prevent). Fetterman stopped taking his blood thinner (I don’t know why) and some time later suffered a stroke. That leads me to question his judgment. Seriously.
Incidentally, in 2005 the only blood thinner available was coumadin (mainly used as a rat poison). It required a blood test every 5 weeks as the distance between a useful dose and a dangerous one was quite narrow. Sometimes the result of a blood test was an order from my doctor to omit a half pill every Sunday and Thursday. Also brassicas (high in vitamin K that neutralized the coumadin) were banned from my diet.
About ten years ago, a new pill was approved that didn’t require close monitoring or dietary restrictions and that made management of AF much easier. Nonetheless, Fetterman stopped. And that’s why is distrust his judgment.
Narrowly focusing on the health issue, the press reports convince me. John Fetterman should resign.
I was one of the Democrats who voted for him in both the 2022 primary and general elections. Since I am a centrist, Fetterman did not turn his back on me. I do not agree with him on everything, but I probably do not agree with any politician on everything.
Pennsylvania is becoming Republican. If and when Gov. Shapiro appoints Fetterman’s temporary successor, he needs to pick someone who can peel off some of the non-fanatical Republican voters. If not, I will soon have two GOP senators.
P.S. I just now edited this post to say that I voted for Fetterman in the primary. I did a SDMB search and found a May 2022 post where I said that was my plan.
Hard to distinguish genuine concerns about Fetterman’s mental health from progressive outrage over his stands on issues of the day.
Some of the most strident attacks refer to his views on the MIddle East, as in the OP’s first link, which shrieks about Fetterman’s “viciously advocating for the extermination of Gaza and giddily embracing Israel’s every war crime.” His apparently being open to considering Trump’s idea for U.S. forces to at least temporarily occupy Gaza is disturbing, but not pro-“extermination”.
Rather than reflecting disqualifying mental health issues, his controversial positions may just be part of a calculated shift to the right for political advantage. Unpleasant - but not a definite sign that he’s on the verge of flipping out.
Sounds like he badly needs a designated driver though.
What about walking in to traffic and almost being hit by a car?
So, no sauerkraut? Not sure the extra lifespan would be worth giving up Rueben sandwiches.
Okay, back to the discussion of Fetterman’s issues.
I got the impression from the TIME story about his mental hospital stay that he was actually on enoxaparin, a fractionated heparin that must be injected, and is also dosed by body weight.
I have known several women who had rare genetic mutations that made them at extremely high risk of miscarriage who had to use this during pregnancy, and the dose changed accordingly as things progressed. Its most common use is after surgery, to prevent blood clots, at a low dose. Heparin can also be used during pregnancy, because warfarin crosses the placenta and can cause birth defects, or even fatal hemorrhage in the baby.
Warfarin is basically an all-purpose anticoagulant, whereas the other ones are more targeted. One of my favorite drug names is Xarelto, because it targets Factor Xa (10a).
I once had a black customer who, upon reading the information sheet about warfarin, said, “I can’t have collard greens? I won’t take this medicine, then!” I told her to talk to a dietician about that. I also had more than one customer walk up to the counter at the grocery store and ask for a refill on their rat poison.
Happens to everybody.
Without knowing why, I cannot agree.
A close friend was diagnosed with Afib in 2023 and went on a blood thinner (Eliquis). Not even a year later, his cardiologist took him off it, advising him that with his age, risk factors, etc., the benefits no longer outweighed the risks. If Fetterman received similar advice from his doctor, for example, then his doctor may have misjudged, but Fetterman can’t be blamed for following professional opinion. (In fact, we generally WANT politicians who listen to subject matter experts rather than substituting their own opinion.)