
John Fetterman explodes at journalist for asking whether he's 'off his meds'
John Fetterman got into it with a New York Magazine after being asked whether he is taking his medication.
The query was posed by former Washington Post political journalist Ben Terris, for a lengthy first feature for the publication.
It occurred towards the end of the interview, which was held in-person in Washington, DC.
Things got touchy when Terris brought up details he said he obtained from 'a number' of former Fetterman staffers - 'that they are worried that you are not on your recovery plan,' the journalist said. 'That you might not be taking your meds.'
The exchange came weeks after it was confirmed the increasingly Donald Trump-aligned Democrat was put on medications in February, following a meeting with then-Senator Sherrod Brown where his behavior was described as 'catatonic.'
In months since, the progressive has surfaced as an unlikely Trump supporter, and has offered him kind words at every chance.
This paved the way for Terris's rather pointed question. He asked whether Fetterman wanted to comment on what was supposedly coming out of his camp.
The Pennsylvania politician - who barely beat out Republican Mehmet Oz back in 2022 - responded with a resounding 'no.' He went on to eye two of his staffers, Terris said - recalling how Fetterman then adjourned for an abrupt break.
First, though, he offered the reporter some stern words.
He claimed that no one in his staff would know about his personal health situation and that anyone claiming otherwise was merely misinformed.
'There's not really anything to respond when that's just not accurate,' he said, shortly after fielding a question about Trump's mental faculties.
Terris, however, pressed on - saying that these former staffers told him 'they've witnessed ups and downs that could be associated with kind of a relapse.
'They also worry that the medication that you're on is not just for depression, but more serious drugs that if you're not on them would be a problem,' Terris added.
'Is there truth to that?'
At this point, Fetterman - who suffered a stroke whilst running against Oz - declared he had nothing to comment, before bringing the conversation off the record for the next few minutes.
That conversation remains shrouded, but once it ended, Terris was reportedly left out in a hallway with a few of Fetterman's aides.
Five minutes later, Terris was brought back into Fetterman's DC office where the interview was held.
'The office felt different now,' Terris wrote in his piece, remarking how it now felt 'quiet and tense.'
Fetterman sat in the same chair but was now 'slumped into himself,' he noticed - comparing the senator who checked himself into Walter Reed in 2023 to receive treatment for depression to 'a deflated parade float.'
'He avoided looking at me,' Terris further claimed, before breaking the silence.
'Anything to say about that?' he asked, referring to his earlier inquiry.
'There's not anyone that you're referencing who would be privy to my medical history,' Fetterman insisted again, before being asked whether he cared to comment on whether the unnamed staffers were right or wrong.
Fetterman - whose politics were once more aligned with those of Bernie Sanders before an apparent shift right in recent months - framed the insight as rumors from 'disgruntled' former staffers.
When asked why these employees may have been disgruntled, Fetterman shot back, 'For whatever reason.'
'There's a lot of people who just hide behind unnamed sources in articles,' he added.
The exchange ended there, with the interview ending minutes later.
'I feel like there's been kind of a tone shift here,' Terris told Fetterman as the interview waned, attempting to catch the senator's eye.
'Can you tell me what you're feeling? What you're thinking?'
The question spurred the senator to finally look at him, Terris recalled - before remembering Fetterman's response.
'No, everything's great,' he said, reportedly with little emotion. 'Everything's great. I don't know what you're referencing.'
During a sunnier point in the sit-down, Fettered offered some insight into his now notorious Mar-a-Lago meeting with the president - a summit that made him the first sitting Democrat to visit the then freshly sworn in conservative.
He said the January meeting went smoothly, lasting around 75 minutes.
Fetterman also said it strengthened his belief that Trump 's mental acumen is as strong as ever.
'His faculties haven't slipped at all,' he told the magazine, keeping course with his recent infatuation with the Republican.'
'It's not that I admire it - I acknowledge it, and if you don't, you do it at your own peril politically.'
He added how he now advocating for Trump to cut off nuclear negotiations with Iran - and get to dropping bombs on the country instead.
Fetterman, 55, is a staunch Israel ally. There have also been public disagreements with staff and fellow Democrats over such policies - as well as legitimate reports of a high turnover in Fetterman's office since he was elected.
Last May, Fetterman's behavior reportedly became so concerning that one of his since gone employees wrote a letter to the medical director of the traumatic-brain-injury and neuropsychiatry unit at Walter Reed asking for help with his boss.
'I think John is on a bad trajectory and I'm really worried about him,' he wrote, claiming that if things did not change, the senator 'won't be with us for much longer.'
'We do not know if he is taking his meds and his behavior frequently suggests he is not,' it continued.
The email further described 'conspiratorial thinking; megalomania… high highs and low lows; long, rambling, repetitive and self centered monologues; lying in ways that are painfully, awkwardly obvious to everyone in the room.'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
30 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
John Fetterman snubs wife Giselle on their own wedding anniversary as he dines with MAGA power player
Democratic Sen. John Fetterman was spotted out to dinner with a MAGA icon at a conservative hotspot in Washington - apparently on his wedding anniversary. The senator who has made a name for himself for bucking his party was spotted dining with a Breitbart reporter on Monday, June 9th, Politico reported. But that's not what caused the online stir. What left onlookers gobsmacked about the weeknight dinner was a brief visit from former Trump advisor and MAGA strategist Steve Bannon, the conservative fireband and liberal bogeyman who anchors his own influential 'War Room' podcast. More stunningly, that dinner at Butterworth's - a buzzy Capitol Hill bistro known to attract MAGA socialites and GOP Hill staffers - apparently happened on Fetterman's 17th anniversary. However, the senator's wife, Gisele, was not mentioned in the dispatch about the surprising dinner party. 'John Fetterman, the not-uncontroversial Democratic senator for Pennsylvania, dining in D.C.'s top MAGA hangout Butterworth's ... Fetterman was joined by Breitbart's Matt Boyle, plus — for a good 20 minutes or so — Steve Bannon,' the outlet wrote. Fetterman's office did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Mail. The potential dinner snub comes after Senate staffers told the Daily Mail in May that Gisele has been absent from Washington this year. A New York Magazine report around that time also documented how Gisele has been concerned with her husband's behavior, including his support for Israel. Fetterman, 55, once believed to be the pro-union, socialist assumed heir to Bernie Sanders ' far-left platform, has since the October 7 attack been leaning more rightward, fervently supporting Israel and denouncing the 'progressive' moniker. He has met personally with President Donald Trump and broken ranks with Democrats with his support for strict border and immigration restrictions as well as fracking, the controversial method to extract oil and gas from the ground. As Fetterman has slid from pseudo-progressive to Democratic populist his staffers have expressed concern over the senator's health and behavior. The 55-year-old suffered a stroke during his 2022 campaign and soon after joining Congress checked himself into the hospital as he battled depression. The bombshell New York Mag piece on the senator lifted the veil on many personal details regarding the Democrat's health struggles, including sections about Gisele complaining to her husband's staff and doctors locking him out of his social media as he underwent treatment. The Democrat and many senators slammed the article at the time. Fetterman told the Daily Mail the report was a 'hit piece.' In the days after the piece was published, multiple staffers told the Daily Mail that Gisele had not been spotted around her husband's Senate office recently. But when Gisele was spotted not wearing her wedding ring in early May, she told the Daily Mail that she was not wearing it because she is a firefighter. 'I'm a firefighter, did you know that? If I wore my wedding ring to fight fires, that would be dangerous,' she said. 'That's why it's not here.' Shortly after the news broke that Fetterman and Bannon dined together briefly on June 9th, X users pieced together that dinner occurred on what Fetterman has said is his anniversary with Gisele. Fetterman posted on June 10, 2024 that he and Gisele had gotten in a car accident 'yesterday,' noting it was a bad way to spend their 'anniversary.' So his sit-down at a MAGA hub with Bannon a year later on his anniversary has raised questions and criticism online. 'OH MY GODDDDD,' one X user reacted to the senator's anniversary plans. You might have heard G and I were in a car accident yesterday. Thank you all for the well wishes. Not the best way to spend our 16th wedding anniversary but we're doing well and happy to be back home in Braddock with the family. — U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) June 10, 2024 'On his 17th wedding anniversary, John Fetterman was seen dining at D.C.'s top MAGA hangout,' Howie Klein, a progressive blogger, wrote on X. 'At the rate he's going, he'll be eligible for Gavin Newsom's podcast soon!' he said of the California governor's show that frequently features Republican guests.


Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Chef Nobu plays coy over Donald Trump's 'ban' from prestigious restaurant chain
World renowned chef Nobuyuki 'Nobu' Matsuhisa played coy when asked whether President Donald Trump is allowed to dine at his restaurants. Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail on the red carpet at the premiere for Nobu at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on Wednesday night, the acclaimed restaurateur let out a laugh when questioned. Chef Nobu then added: 'I don't want to talk about the politics!' His comments come seven years after Nobu co-founder Robert De Niro said that he would 'walk out' if Trump, 78, entered a restaurant he was dining in. 'I don't care what he likes,' the Casino actor, 81, told Daily Mail at the time. 'If he walked into a restaurant I was in, I'd walk out.' Chef Nobu, 76, added: 'It's my dream for Trump to sit next to Bob. To make them sushi!' A representative for De Niro also said at the time that the actor has 'not banned anyone from dining at Nobu.' At the time of writing, there are over 55 Nobu restaurants globally, spanning five continents. His comments come seven years after Nobu co-founder Robert De Niro said that he would 'walk out' if Trump entered a restaurant he was dining in The Nobu brand also boasts of 38 Nobu Hotels and 12 residence projects. The upcoming Nobu documentary, directed and produced by Matt Tyrnauer, delves deep into the celebrity chef's trials and tribulations that would shape his path. The film features appearances from his founding partner De Niro, supermodel Cindy Crawford and celebrated chefs Wolfgang Puck and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. 'I think it was a great story that hadn't been told on film,' Tyrnauer told Daily Mail on the red carpet. 'He's an innovator, he's a household name, but I don't think people knew the story behind him, so for me, it was a great opportunity to tell the story you don't really know.' Part of the documentary sees Chef Nobu open up about the death of his late best friend Sakai, who died by suicide in 2017. The scenes are raw and emotional, with the chef breaking down in front of the camera. 'He broke down on camera very early in the interview process talking about his best friend,' Tyrnauer said. 'Nobu admits that he's harbored a great deal of guilt about this, and it wasn't easy for him to talk about, clearly. That was a very emotional moment on camera. 'We then went to the cemetery together to see the grave of his best friend. He hadn't been before and he again broke down, understandably so. These were very raw moments.' 'I've interviewed a lot of people and I've never seen anyone so upset as they recollected something,' Tyrnauer added. Despite the emotion, the filming process was a cathartic experience for Chef Nobu. 'He thanked me, although he didn't need to, for as he put it "helping him heal,"' Tyrnauer said. 'I think the role of a filmmaker sometimes can be a bit of a psychiatrist, unlicensed. It's not something that I seek to take on but sometimes it happens accidentally and I think that the process seemed to work for him in a way that he felt better after.' Nobu will open in New York at the Angelika Film Center on June 27, followed by a national rollout beginning July 4.


Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
US files lawsuit against New York for blocking immigration officials near court
WASHINGTON, June 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday that it has filed a lawsuit challenging a New York state law that blocks immigration officials from arresting individuals at or near New York courthouses. "Specifically, the complaint challenges a law, called the Protect Our Courts Act, that purposefully shields dangerous aliens from being lawfully detained at or on their way to or from a courthouse and imposes criminal liability for violations of the shield," the Justice Department said in a statement. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said New York was employing policies similar to those used by California to prevent "illegal aliens from apprehension." "This latest lawsuit in a series of sanctuary city litigation underscores the Department of Justice's commitment to keeping Americans safe and aggressively enforcing the law," she said. Demonstrators once again took to the streets in major U.S. cities on Thursday to protest President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. A federal judge in San Francisco will hear arguments later in the day as part of California's lawsuit against Trump's deployment of U.S. troops in Los Angeles.