Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was meeting last week with representatives from a teachers union in his home state when things quickly devolved.
Before long, Fetterman began repeating himself, shouting and questioning why “everybody is mad at me,” “why does everyone hate me, what did I ever do” and slamming his hands on a desk, according to one person who was briefed on what occurred.
As the meeting deteriorated, a staff member moved to end it and ushered the visitors into the hallway, where she broke down crying. The staffer was comforted by the teachers who were themselves rattled by Fetterman’s behavior, according to a second person who was briefed separately on the meeting.
As somebody that has suffered from a stroke, I can pretty much relate to what John is going through here as I used to suffer from emotional outbursts early into my recovery as well. While I cannot promise you that it’s the same thing exactly it sure seems awfully familiar and hopefully he can recover like I did.
You’re the only commenter on this post who mentioned his stroke in the context of hoping for his recovery- rather than using it to mock him. So much for tolerance
Sounds like everyone else is weirdly angry that he’s STILL IN OFFICE causing problems when he’s clearly not fit for the job, regardless of the reason? Isn’t that the more pressing concern than his health, him being an utter stranger to almost everyone?
Why do people need to be kind and sensitive toward someone’s recovery while that person insists on keeping a position of extreme responsibility, and constantly fucks it up, while “recovering”?
Crappy take, friend. And the “so much for tolerance” is such a loaded phrase, you almost sound insincere, to boot. We don’t owe these politicians a fuckin thing, CERTAINLY not some prioritized level of compassion. Get real!
The “so much for tolerance” is a bit much. But there is a very real conversation to be had about this.
It’s because it’s brain damage. The thing that thinks. The organ in his body that would normally explain to him that something is wrong and that he is no longer capable of making rational decisions… that organ is what is damaged.
The man clearly needs help. This isn’t some Kanye West megalomaniacal breakdown, this is just “the part of his brain that should know better could literally be dead”.
If we had a functioning society, government, and recall system, he would have been removed by now. But expecting a stroke victim to make the right decisions when he’s clearly significantly altered from his baseline mental state… that’s just wishful thinking.
Or, it terms I understand:
"Your shit's fucked up." I said "Doctor, how" He said "The shit that used to work? Well, it don't work now."Y’know, trump is literally demented and a malignant narcissist. The article talks about Fetterman repeating himself over and over - we’ve already seen multiple staffers describe trump doing exactly this. Does throwing a plate full of ketchup at the wall count as an ‘outburst’? He’s got more. A lot more.
Just sayin. He does this shit daily and doesn’t get an AP article written about it. Both of them need to step down but only one of them would ever be pressed by their own party.
That Last Week Tonight bit with the interview about Abrego Garcia was painful to watch.
That entire segment made me sick to my stomach.
Homan is an absolute fucking demon
That journalist was doing their very best to let him off the hook and move on. That wasn’t even a gotcha situation, he even conceded that the tattoos could be interpretted as MS-13 bit that he was no expert, and tried to move on. But Trump wouldn’t let it go, and kept trying to pull it back to “it wasn’t photoshop, he actually had the MS13 tattooed in print on his knuckles” and openly said that the journalist should just say yes and accept it before he’d move on. Jesus.
So be it. It’s been a LONG time in this state. That sucks for him. The outsized damage he’s able to do makes me unsympathetic. He’s just one guy. Boo fucking hoo. The extraordinary damage happening to countless lives in this fucking country today, and we need to have a chat about how much compassion to give this guy? Again, get real!
Edit: I guess your point is about his own inability to see the problem, which I acknowledge. I don’t think he’s due any outsized compassion, at all.
Compassion should not be reserved only for those that are good, but for everyone, and I think especially for those that are bad and may not realize that they are bad. Right and wrong are not black and white things and it is very difficult to be objective about one’s own situation, and realizing that hey “I’m doing wrong”. In this case I would argue that for Fetterman, he might not even yet realize how irrational his behavior is, maybe even the people around him have not fully realized it. So instead of trying to eat him alive, you can point it out, explain how his actions are harming people and kindly ask that he step down instead of acting rabid about it. Berating him is not gonna make him want to step down more than being kind about it so you might as well be kind, unless this is about realizing some kind of gratification for you.
I don’t care. You are completely missing the point. Everything you said is obviously, like painfully obviously, true in a general sense. It’s Morality 101.
Do you see the state of this place?? Are you aware that Fetterman has been causing these kinds of problems for a LONG time now, and do you agree that we desperately need every fucking scrap of pull to bring this country and it’s people back from the brink?
Giving a shit about the man’s well-being is someone else’s goddamn job. Miss me with your pearl clutching bullshit.
Ok internet tough guy.
Yeah, it’s just this unfortunately.
I don’t know how anyone can help or fix the situation directly while it benefits the fascists in power, but being upset at him for not stepping down is like being upset with an Alzheimer’s patient for not remembering your name.
I just don’t agree. It’s more like being upset at an Alzheimer’s patient for totally blowing an important debate.