Tom Stiglich
Kyle Sammin: Fetterman was always unfit for office
After the 2024 election, a lot of “now it can be told” stories seem to be hitting the headlines.
Joe Biden, it turns out, was not as sharp as a tack all this time, despite what Democrats and their friends in the media said. Kamala Harris’s campaign? Every bit as shambolic and aimless as the 2020 version. It all comes out after the people involved are no longer useful to the forces that kept propping them up all these years.
The latest story of this type is about Senator John Fetterman, whom readers of New York magazine are now surprised to learn might not be fully capable of doing the job to which he was elected in 2022. Do tell! As with Biden and Harris, there was no place in the world where concerned citizens might have learned these facts — unless they dared to reach outside their comfort zones and read any one of the thousands of articles explaining these exact points in alternative media sources like the one you are reading right now.
Yes, now it can be told – and we already told you three years ago.
In 2022, John Fetterman was leading his primary opponents in the polls when he suffered a stroke. The campaign’s major effort following this was to make sure it was kept as secret as possible from the voters. As we noted at the time, Democrats’ friends in the media helped the campaign perpetuate this farce. As the campaign pulled the wool over voters’ eyes enough to ensure that Fetterman got the nomination, the legacy press switched from intrepid truth-seekers to see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil partisans for the Democratic nominee.
Fetterman’s people eventually acknowledged his lingering health problems, seeking first to avoid a debate with Republican nominee Mehmet Oz, then to lower expectations once he finally agreed to one. He performed pretty badly, but that didn’t stop Democrats and their friends from carrying him over the finish line.
In the Philadelphia Inquirer’s endorsement of the then-lieutenant governor in 2022, the editors wrote that “[t]here is no reason Fetterman cannot serve effectively after his stroke.” They went on to explain that “Fetterman knows what his values are and is capable of communicating them.”
It is strange to imagine that he had recovered command of his faculties by November 2022, only to lose it again once the election was won. The human body is truly a mystery — at least to the editorial board of the paper of record.
Fetterman’s odd behavior continued into his first year as a senator but, again, we were told that insisting on things like business attire and professional decorum was for fuddy-duddies or even “ableist”. Was this just John being John, or had the man fundamentally changed as a result of his brain issues? No offence to any of our readers who wear shorts in February, but sometimes bizarre sartorial choices do suggest deeper mental problems.
Fetterman missed some votes. He did a stretch in Walter Reed for depression. He continued being the oddest man in the Senate — a body that includes Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, and several other guys who aren’t exactly normal. And Democrats said all was well.
But now the knives have come out. The New York magazine article has the densest concentration known to man of quotes from anonymous former staffers, and even a few on-the-record expressions of “concern” over Big John’s behavior. The Inquirer followed up with even more anonymous quotes about “he’s not doing the job.”
If only someone had raised these concerns to the Inquirer at the time!
As we at Broad + Liberty noted in 2022: “He is also not a man who likes to work, period. By now we all know that he lived off his affluent parents until he was 49 years old — it must be nice! But even to the extent he had a job, he seemed to quickly grow bored of the responsibilities. As mayor of Braddock — a part-time gig — Fetterman was criticized for failing to show up to city council meetings. As Lieutenant Governor, he has also kept ‘a light schedule’ even for an office that does not demand very much of its occupant.”
He’s never been fond of “doing the job.” But the bigger question in all this is: why now? What’s changed?
It’s not a coincidence that Democrats only started questioning Fetterman’s mental capacity when he diverted from progressive opinion on the Gaza War. Expressing extremely mainstream opinions like “Israel has a right to defend itself” and “Hamas is not a partner for peace,” our senior senator has outraged the leftists who believed he was one of them.
It didn’t matter whether his brain worked or not, as long as he passed the left-wing purity tests. Once he failed one of them, it didn’t matter that he votes with his party 99 percent of the time in the Senate, he had to go.
Democrats downplayed Fetterman’s health issues until he was no longer useful to them. Republicans, meanwhile, are warming up to the man they called incompetent. The fact is, he’s not as incapable as we feared, but he is also anything but the fully functioning senator his friends claimed he would be.
It’s fine for lefties to turn on Fetterman, like they’ve turned on Biden — once they no longer needed him. But is it too much to ask that they show a little humility? Fetterman is exactly who everyone knew he was. If you voted for him anyway, that’s on you.
Kyle Sammin is the managing editor of Broad + Liberty.
This piece is rife with ableism.
What is “ableism”? Another “ism” without a clear definition but always used in a pejorative sense. I look on the use of “isms” in the manner of the old saying: “Bull—t baffles the brain.”
If only you had “Googled it”, like and others have told me so often.
Ableism – : discrimination or prejudice against individuals with disabilities
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ableism#dictionary-entry-1
““He is also not a man who likes to work, period. By now we all know that he lived off his affluent parents until he was 49 years old” He was a mentor in Big Brothers and Sisters and worked for Americorp helping people in Pittsburgh. He could have easily taken over his father’s company and instead chose to use his privilege to help others. I could care less about how dresses for work, because he is getting things done for all residents of Pennsylvania.
Fetterman did not win because he was propped up, he won because he was the right person for the job. Oz was a former TV personality, during a time when the GOP thought they could fool most of the people all of the time. Oz lost because he was never a resident of Pennsylvania, had lost multiple lawsuits for snake oil that he peddled, engaged in unethical medical experiments, and is security risk because he holds two different citizenships.
The headline is not supported by the story. The headline claims Fetterman was always “unfit.” C’mon. How many national politicians down through history have kept a light schedule? Doesn’t Trump? Didn’t Eisenhower? And let’s remember — the election was between TWO candidates. If Fetterman isn’t the greater good, at least he was the lesser evil by comparison with a carpetbagging Hillary Clinton clone (“I want to be the first woman President because I want it and that is all you need to know!”).
Man, the piling on of John Fetterman is really getting tired.
I don’t agree with a lot of his positions, but I will respect him forever that he stands by his beliefs and doesn’t hesitate or waiver when public sentiment or his own party is largely moving in a different direction. He was out in support of Israel ahead of anyone else, and has survived the ridicule, anger and vitriol of his stance without backing down.
That counts for something when he operates daily within a profession in which principles, ethics and morals are genuinely hard to come by, replaced in importance instead by polls, donors and political correctness/wokeism. John Fetterman was never going to build rockets or become a micro physicist, but he is someone that genuinely wants to solve problems and is willing to work in that direction with anyone, whether on his team or not. If sheer book knowledge actually equaled intelligence, given that about 90% of our congress and senate are lawyers, we “should” be in great shape. I’ll take my chances with a legislature with more Fettermans than one comprised of the McConnells/Pelosi’s/Schumers/Romneys any day.
Fetterman has been a pleasant surprise. I think that respite at the beginning of his term made him think clearly and independently for a change instead of a rubber stamp democrat voter or someone like Biden that had Obama’s hand up his back moving his lips. Dems don’t like that.
He’s a guaranteed democrat vote. That’s all that matters. If Fetterman decides to leave office he will be replaced by Shapiro. I am sure Shapiro will appoint someone who will also be a guaranteed democrat vote. Hopefully the republicans will avoid a primary and decide on a competitive candidate. good luck with that.
I didn’t vote for Fetterman last election, but might next cycle. I’d vote him over Oz if I had a redo.
All this talk about his incompetence, but he’s been a pleasant surprise to this former democrat. Saner than most others on the left.
He doesn’t like terrorists or unlimited immigration and can tell men from womem- MUST be crazy /sarc.