23-07-2025
EXCLUSIVE Why Gisele Fetterman doesn't want John to make a White House run as she grapples with his sudden political success
Gisele Fetterman said she 'wouldn't be supportive' if her husband, Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, ran for president, admitting in an interview with Meghan McCain that she no longer feels safe on the campaign trail.
Fetterman sat down with McCain at her home in Braddock, Pennsylvania as she promoted her new book, Radical Tenderness: The Value of Vulnerability in an Often Unkind World.
The Daily Mail obtained early clips of the interview that will air on Wednesday at 12 p.m. ET on 2Way's Citizen McCain program.
'I mean that's a question for him, but I certainly wouldn't be supportive,' Fetterman answered when asked if Sen. Fetterman had White House ambitions.
While he's mostly voted the party line, Sen. Fetterman has been willing to take unconventional positions - supporting Israel through the Gaza war, defending Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid President Donald Trump 's controversial mass deportation plan - even visiting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago before the president's term began.
McCain, the daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, a Republican who was credited with often having 'maverick' positions, told Fetterman that she liked her husband because he's been 'very interesting in a time of boring cowards.'
The Citizen McCain host then asked how Fetterman has survived being a prominent political spouse while at the same time being a sensitive person - the concept Fetterman's book tackles.
Fetterman responded that her husband running for U.S. Senate would have never been her idea.
'That's his choice,' she explained. 'I can support him if that's what he wants to do. I wouldn't try to stop someone from wanting to do something. Sure. But I would never say, this is what I think you should do. I think you should run for Senate. That never would've been my, my idea for him.'
McCain then asked if Fetterman liked campaigning.
'I have liked campaigning at different times in my life,' she answered. 'I don't think I like it anymore.'
'I don't feel safe in a lot of spaces,' Fetterman added in a clip exclusively shared with the Daily Mail.
In her book, Fetterman - a Brazilian-American and former undocumented Dreamer - detailed a scary moment when a woman saw her at a Pittsburgh Aldi grocery store and hurled racist insults in her direction, following her out to the parking lot.
'She was calling me a thief and telling me I "don't belong in this country." She said I had "ruined John's bloodline,"' Fettterman wrote in her book. 'I was frozen, in shock. The hate and darkness in her face was, frankly, terrifying.'
Fetterman admitted to McCain, 'I think it's been a while since I really felt safe.'
McCain pointed out that Fetterman has received more death threats than her husband, an elected official.
Gisele Fetterman argued that the experience wasn't unique to her - and some people have shrugged it off by saying, 'this is what you signed up for ... like this is normal.'
'I still challenge that this isn't normal. This shouldn't be normal,' Fetterman argued.
She said that the couple's three kids have found it challenging to navigate their parents becoming public figures, and have shared their frustrations with their mother.
'If we're at the mall, they try to walk ahead, or walk behind. We've learned different ways to cope. We know this is the reality,' she said.
In the book, Fetterman wrote about how important it is to be truthful to her three kids, recounting a conversation the Fettermans had with eldest son Karl when he found out a friend's parents were getting a divorce.
Karl then asked his parents: 'Would you and Dad ever get divorced?'
While the senator said no, Fetterman said 'maybe.'
'John was, understandably, surprised by my response,' Fetterman wrote. 'But I explained that, though I loved him and hoped we'd always be together, I wanted to be realistic and honest with the kids about all of life's possibilities.'
During their interview McCain asked Fetterman about divorce rumors that have swirled around the couple, especially in the aftermath of a New York Magazine story that was published in May that suggested they didn't see eye-to-eye on the war in Gaza.
'I try not to read anything,' Fetterman said when McCain alluded to the rumors. 'So I really don't pay attention to the noise. So I don't know what they're writing ... I don't really listen to it. And I think that's the only way to get through it is to not.'
McCain said that 'there's been unkind things said about your marriage' and asked Fetterman if she wanted an opportunity to clear anything up about it.
'No, I mean, I feel like Michelle Obama or, you know, Hailey Bieber. Every day it's a different story about them,' Fetterman responded.
'Journalists, just even serious journalists now, are just like going for the click,' she added.
