May 09, 2025
Jack Gruber/USA TODAY
Sen. Dave McCormick condemned critical press reports about John Fetterman, his Democratic colleague from Pennsylvania, in a recent post to X.
Sen. Dave McCormick decried the "vicious, personal attacks" on his Democratic colleague from Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, on Friday.
The Republican lawmaker called Fetterman "authentic, decent, principled and a fighter" in a message posted to X, and criticized the "disgraceful smears" against him. McCormick's words were a clear response to recent reporting in New York Magazine, the Associated Press and the Inquirer, that has questioned Fetterman's fitness for the job.
Anonymous staffers speaking to those publications characterized Fetterman as frequently absent and prone to emotional outbursts and risky behavior. Fetterman allegedly began shouting and slamming the table during a recent meeting with the Pennsylvania State Education Association, which ended with a staffer in tears. His former chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, claimed the senator habitually texts, reads and FaceTimes while driving at high speeds — an alarming allegation given that Fetterman crashed his car into the back of an SUV, injuring his wife, Gisele, in the process, last June.
Jentleson further alleged the politician has abandoned the medical plan that doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center created following his in-patient treatment for depression in 2023. Fetterman also suffered a stroke shortly before his 2022 election to the Senate.
The lawmaker later told CNN that he was taking his medication and dismissed the New York Magazine story, which quotes Jentleson, as a "hit piece."
Now, McCormick and at least two more GOP senators are coming to Fetterman's defense while Democrats have mostly remained silent. Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chamber's president pro tempore, wrote that the "media ought to lay off Senator Fetterman" in a Friday post to X. Sen. Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, also criticized the press reports, claiming the negative attention was due to Fetterman's staunch support of Israel.
"John Fetterman and I have our differences, but he's a decent and genuine guy," Cotton said on X. "The radical left is smearing him with dishonest, vicious attacks because he's pro-Israel and they only want reliable anti-Israel politicians. Disgraceful."
Fetterman, who also has been criticized for meeting with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in January, is finding less support within his party. A recent poll of Democratic voters in Pittsburgh found that 49% had an unfavorable impression of the senator, compared to 46% who had a favorable view of him. Fetterman lives about 10 miles outside Pittsburgh in Braddock, Pennsylvania.
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