RIP John Fetterman

not really

but also what the fuck is up with this guy, who is seemingly turning into a poorly dressed joe manchin in record time?

quality thread title and first post

Some people turn into assholes after a TBI?

he was always terrible on israel, that just wasn't as salient, and his one move when challenged on anything is to very loudly triple down.

Seems to be just another trust fund a-hole, just a Democrat one.

kind of looks like a slaphead Ming the Merciless or Gary Glitter, obv a nonce

this fucking guy

I wonder if the local library has a copy of his memoir. The excerpts I have heard aren't good! I have a lot of sympathy for people who struggle with health problems, but refusing to seek treatment for depression to the extent that you also don't follow up on cardiovascular health issues, run for senator, and then win that election only to spend the rest of November unable or unwilling to get out of bed, to the extent you have to drag yourself to thanksgiving dinner is crazy to me

I've spent my life attempting to get my ducks in a row before doing things, but apparently that's wrong! Just run for senator! Have preventable health issues! have really thin skin and take contradictory issues when someone asks if you're going to do your job!

So Fetterman is trying to resurrect the dead-in-the-water SAVE act with a compromise that will make just Voter ID mandatory? Thanks, asshole.

it's pretty obvious from complaints I've read that his office isn't functional enough to take voter feedback or requests right now, so who the hell is he doing this on behalf of? the entire brave productive centrist lane where you deliver things nobody in particular wants is so grating

looks like he's also gonna be the deciding vote for Mullin's confirmation FFS

what a complete embarrassment of a person

I had to sit through a work dinner last night where an older gentleman started talking about politics and opined that this guy was his favorite senator.

as one does.

grimacing and nodding at your work dinner's most respected bipartisan

It's been hard for those guys since Lieberman died.

https://i.redd.it/e85rc5dnkdtc1.jpeg

Gaaah this guy makes me so fucking angry

As we've seen with Diane Feinstein, you can't trash bin senators who insist on serving out their terms, no matter how badly they need to go.

yes you can on a message board

This is one case where you could possibly cyber bully him into another stroke.

just digging himself in deeper

"You know, right now our party, is, is governed by the TDS, and now it’s made it virtually impossible, without being punished, as a Democrat, to agree something’s good, or ‘I agree with the other side,’ and I would define that by Epic Fury,” Fetterman responded.

“I am literally the only Democrat in America, in Congress, that I’ve come across that’s saying, ‘I think it’s a great thing to break and destroy the Iranian regime,’” he added.

He made his decision to approve Markwaynejimbob last week, so the confirmation hearing was a waste of time for him. He trusts his gut, not the party or his base. And I trust his gut like I trust Trump’s.

I'm sure you do think it's a great idea, you know who doesn't though, something like 95% of the Democratic voters who put you in office because they actually believed you were gonna fight for them

has his wife left him yet? she basically went totally dark on social media for a while after he went nutso, then I stopped following her

wikipedia still lists her as his spouse, so if there's a divorce afoot it isn't final.

i can totally understand that a traumatic brain injury and/or stroke would affect a person; far less convinced that such things would affect a person in precisely this fashion

struggling to get out of bed does not inexorably lead to 'let's gleefully kill every muslim'

Honestly I don't think it was the stroke. He was probably *always* this guy, and pulled one over on PA voters, myself included. We won't get fooled again, until inevitably we do.

so he confirmed Mullin

has his wife left him yet? she basically went totally dark on social media for a while after he went nutso, then I stopped following her

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Thursday, March 19, 2026 3:21 AM (twelve hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm she was doing the political wife thing to the HILT and doing it beautifully and with what came across to me as a lot of actual care and enthusiasm for people. I hope she's well and if it's not too much to ask for someone who has to live with that guy, I hope she's happy. :/

She made an anti-ICE post a month ago or so and then her social media accounts were deleted.

never forgotten this:

https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/john-fetterman-black-jogger-2013-shotgun-20220425.html

Crossing my fingers along with the rest of the internet for her to leave and have a great life with the kids and the dog.

he probably had her deported

"Polling shows that Fetterman’s popularity among Pennsylvania Democrats has swung by an eye-popping 108 percentage points since 2023, from 68 points net favorable to 40 points net unfavorable."

https://prospect.org/2026/05/06/will-john-fetterman-go-full-benedict-arnold/

devastating news for the "you can't reduce something by more than 100%!" crowd

it's a 54% swing lol

that is still a lot

hmm, maybe it depends on what is meant by 'swing' actually, matter of interpretation. this is now the statistics thread

yeah that is some Harry Enten math.

needs more spittle and bug eyes

that's how pollsters calculate swing in this context though isn't it? just is rare for it to be that massive

tbh i don't understand what the + and - mean when they are in front of numbers that pollsters throw around. i would doubt most people really understand even basic statistics

I think it's something like-- In 2023 Fetterman was at 80% approve and 12% disapprove (8% no opinion): 68% net approval
and in 2026 he's at 20% approve and 70% disapprove: -40% net approval

sorry I meant 30% approve in the second one

Of course, to me 70% disapproval sounds worse than -40% approval but wonks gonna wonk.

you forgot to carry the one

This is incredibly difficult to watch. I also think it’s perfectly reasonable to demand a serious examination of this man’s health and whether he is fit to serve pic.twitter.com/sqncIqoepA

— Julian Andreone (@JulianAndreone) May 12, 2026

you're referring to Bill Maher, right

I think Maher is perfectly capable at his job as a smug asshole.

Jesus Christ that guy is a wreck

Is that just aphasia that affects him being able to get out the thoughts in his head, or are the thoughts jumbled?

I feel like I'd need to check his book out from the library to confirm some things, but given how frank the excerpts have been, I would assume the overwhelming depression is part of it

doesn't sound too different from how Elon Musk speaks

I dunno. I have a friend who had a stroke a few years ago, with aphasia, and that reminds me of her very much. Of course, I wouldn't want her in the Senate, either.

no more henpecking, no more TDS

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) on Tuesday defended the amount of money reportedly spent on President Trump’s revamp of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and told critics to “stop the henpecking.”

“Stop this henpecking. $13M? This is an iconic American place and was in serious disrepair,” Fetterman said on the social platform X, sharing a screenshot of the headline for the Times’ story. “Get over the TDS and celebrate this is getting done for our 250th.”

If Fetterman fell into the reflecting pool would anyone help him get out?

I’ll settle for him slipping in the shower

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) told his staff he thought he could be the vice presidential nominee on the Democratic ticket in 2028, prompting disbelief, New York Magazine’s Intelligencer reported Thursday.

“Almost all of us had our jaws on the floor, like, ‘Are you out of your fucking mind? You don’t do your job, you can’t raise any money, and your entire party hates you,’” a person who was in the room that day last summer told the publication.

rahm’s running mate, running on trumpism with a human face

Vance/Fetterman maybe

all of us surly, brain-damaged Carhartt dudes can relate to him

I want to know why folks who think that of him are still working for him.

paychecks, future resume fodder for better jobs

Maybe he doesn't make them do anything (vaguely assigns, complains, avoids, forgets?)

FPing everyone who got my hopes up

agreed this thread should only be revived when the title is relevant

agreed this thread should only be revived when the title is relevant

No

the thread title is always relevant. hope springs eternal.

i’m always down for some hope, but it’s from last summer anyway, right?

“Almost all of us had our jaws on the floor, like, ‘Are you out of your fucking mind? You don’t do your job, you can’t raise any money, and your entire party hates you,’” a person who was in the room that day last summer told the publication.

these days i’m sure he’s aiming for president

Well, yeah. Sometimes staffers don’t trash their Senators until they leave the job.

i get that! but yeah when i just read the first part of the quote i assumed he had just blurted it out today or something, thought maybe someone else would think that too. i'm sure there will be a million more reports of things fetterman has done that have sucked, in the tell-all book in a few years which i won't read haha.

god. it's amazing how far you can get by being a big guy in shorts

just a guy thinking bout stuff:

“Halfway through my first term, I now recognize how important the filibuster is and the state our country would be in without it,” Fetterman said in a Monday op-ed in The Washington Post.

“I thought Democrats were not being ruthless the way Republicans were, and we needed to be on that level if we were going to relieve the anger that voters were feeling,” he said. “Upon reflection, the pursuit of those short-term wins clouded the bigger picture and lasting impact of a Senate without the filibuster — a Senate that ignored the voices of the minority and everyday people.”

this fucking guy

Can't find a Fetterman

jaymc otm

yes when Americans think of the Senate they think of a group that listens to the voices of the minority and everyday people

History has vindicated former senators Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) and Joe Manchin III (West Virginia), two people who were vilified by the Democratic Party for their support of the filibuster and whose courageous efforts damaged their political careers. The rule is a critical line of defense that prevents President Donald Trump from having a fill-in-the-blank government with new laws, deregulation or procedures of its choosing.

waiting eagerly for the day when my theory is proven wrong that the Dems will always find just exactly the right number of Nays to sink any vote to end the filibuster

oh yeah history sure has vindicated those two assholes who are hated equally by both political parties

"If both sides are mad at you, you're right" is the most common form of DC brain poisoning.

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:45dqaaqhlgoiknw74nlwmhie/bafkreihs3hqyyjfqrk2njuok4fohplayur2t4m6ubzibhlfmf7dlcwjei4

you can certainly make a case that he's both mentally and physically impaired

but that doesn't excuse his being truly awful on every possible level

That’s terrible.

That wsj article also says he then had aides tell some rural military vets who had come from far away to meet with him about healthcare issues , that he had eaten something that didn’t agree with him and had to cancel. He walked into the office an hour later looking fine and said he couldn’t miss doing a Fox News interview about Israeli and the war in Iran.

As one does.

Damn it I hate these stupid RIP threads.

lol here’s him backing out of funerals for slain PA cops because the ceremony was gonna be too long

This is a career ending image for Fetterman. Holy shit. pic.twitter.com/3HsG4kb72g

— Joe (@electionsjoe) September 4, 2026

He can’t even do fascism without being a prick

Damn it I hate these stupid RIP threads.

― Cow_Art, Friday, September 4, 2026 5:10 AM

I hear ya but it's a time honored ILX tradition

Now I'm wondering who Fetterman pissed off to get the WSJ to drop the bomb on him.

everyone?

he's the exact sort of Democrat the media loves though - one who talks and acts like a Republican.

A female commenter on one of the blogs I visit made a salient point: only a man can get away with wearing sweat pants and not combing his fucking hair in public; a woman has to color-coordinate every outfit, have her hair nice, and wear appropriate makeup.

Fetterman don’t have hair to comb!! lol

For public figures, though, yes, that is undeniably true.

It's pointless for Fetterman to meet with constituents anyway, since he doesn't even enter the Senate chamber and therefore can't legislate or make deals or anything.

it is remarkable how bad this guy sucks

It's pointless for Fetterman to meet with constituents anyway, since he doesn't even enter the Senate chamber and therefore can't legislate or make deals or anything.

Dos he literally not go into the chamber as a mental health accommodation or something, or is he just frequently truant?

Now I'm wondering who Fetterman pissed off to get the WSJ to drop the bomb on him.

― every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in f (President Keyes), Friday, 4 September 2026 13:53 (one hour ago)

His staff

I feel humbled by the Fetterman experience. I’ll cop to having been excited about him when he first came on the scene, for reasons that in retrospect were concerningly populist — plainspoken rough-around-the-edges regular dude speaking truth to power, doesn’t stand on ceremony in fighting for people. I take a modicum of solace in my judgment of my own instincts that his brain has gotten right fucked up and that that’s a major contributor to how awful he is, but still a harsh lesson in never allowing myself to wear rose-colored glasses when looking at a politician

Dos he literally not go into the chamber as a mental health accommodation or something, or is he just frequently truant?

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Friday, September 4, 2026 11:36 AM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

He is not allowed in because he dresses like a slob. He sits in the hallway outside the chamber looking at his phone.

I feel humbled by the Fetterman experience. I’ll cop to having been excited about him when he first came on the scene

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Friday, September 4, 2026 11:42 AM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the peoples oaf was too good to be true

Yup exactly

We have to stop looking under bridges for our candidates.

He is not allowed in because he dresses like a slob

Wait. . . really?

lol here’s him backing out of funerals for slain PA cops because the ceremony was gonna be too long

too long and / or he was told he couldn't wear shorts

I mean I get there's a lot going on but this is like mind blowing

We have to stop looking under bridges for our candidates.

― every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in f (President Keyes), Friday, September 4, 2026 11:55 AM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

just one more bridge cmon bro

He is not allowed in because he dresses like a slob. He sits in the hallway outside the chamber looking at his phone.

Wow did not know that. Ridiculous (on his part)

Reminiscent of this basketball player Royce White who was drafted to the NBA with a lot of media stories around his intense anxiety disorder. As a therapist I was excited that he might be a good spokesperson/avatar for mental health but his career never even started because his demands for accommodations were so rigid and extreme that they were effectively unmeetable. At the end of the day it was clearly more about his own narcissism and need for attention and was counterproductive to people’s attitudes towards mental health accommodations. Fetterman’s insistence on dressing like a bum feels similar. (The punchline of course is that White found a new avenue for outrage and attention by becoming a ghoulish MAGA political candidate.)

It's impossible to make Fetterman look like anything but a walking disaster, but it is also valuable to recall that he beat Dr. Oz in an election to to replace republican Pat Toomey, who had called for the abolition of the IRS.

vote blue no matter the ghoul

more like it was always doomed to end in tears

royce white is a now a terf pos it seems, and i think he's running for office?

o you mentioned that in yr post, lavator

it is also valuable to recall that he beat Dr. Oz in an election to to replace republican Pat Toomey, who had called for the abolition of the IRS

It's also valuable to recall that he beat Conor Lamb in the Democratic Primary by posing as a Bernie-style progressive.

We have to stop looking under bridges for our candidates.

― every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in f (President Keyes), Friday, September 4, 2026 11:55 AM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

just one more bridge cmon bro

― lag∞n, Friday, September 4, 2026 12:03 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

the dems eternal Matt Foley folly

Royce White also had to leave the University of Minnesota basketball program for stealing laptops and also has DV charges

apparently Royce White has a 50 year no contact order from his ex

I haven’t paged through Fetterman’s book, but apparently it was ghostwritten by someone else after Buzz Bissinger (!) decided it wasn’t worth it: https://defector.com/nobody-wants-to-talk-about-john-fetterman-and-buzz-bissingers-pricey-memoir-project

from the excerpts I have heard on podcasts, him being mopey isn’t just a post-stroke thing. it has plenty of depressing material before that

Well well well

Hello, Twitter.

We’re a group of former campaign & Senate staffers for John Fetterman who are disgusted with what he's become.

If you were troubled by yesterday's Wall Street Journal story... trust us, that's just the tip of the iceberg.

It's even worse than you thought.

— Former Fetterman Staffers (@FettermanStaff) September 4, 2026

Oh shit

lets go

I hate Fetterman, but this is - like a lot of accounts on x/twitter - kind of sketchy? Oh, we're going to reveal Big News, stay tuned! (And I'm speaking as someone who still likes twitter more than bsky).

I would like to read the WSJ article but I don't have a subscription.

My original feeling was that Conor Lamb was the right choice and people chose Fetterman instead. So be it.

You like Twitter more than Bluesky.

lol here’s him backing out of funerals for slain PA cops because the ceremony was gonna be too long

heartbreaking.jpg tbrr

lol exactly

Shrek out shrekking

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman (D) made a virtual appearance at the Republican National Committee midterm convention on Wednesday to support his friend, Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick (R).

“Why am I here talking to you today? Because, well, I’m a common-sense Democrat. I’m always going to stand with America. I’m always going to reject the extremes and socialism and that anti-American way of life,” Fetterman explained in the brief video message introducing and endorsing McCormick.

“Dave McCormick is the kind of senator that gets the job done, and he’s going to fight for Pennsylvania. I’m proud to count him as my friend,” Fetterman said.

why is he endorsing a senator whose next race is in 2030

he has a lot of spare time when he cuts out the funeral shit

probably someone is running up a trial balloon to see how people feel about Fetterman endorsing anything and he doesn’t care or know who is up for election

part of that could be determining if republican support for Fetterman goes up, down, etc if he does such a thing

I guess he was just introducing him as a speaker, not an endorsement per se

still, you haven’t seen that kind of cross-party solidarity state in years except among the old moderates. we had a senator and house rep from here who had a good rapport and the republican switched parties in 2022, after already serving in the Obama admin as a moderate

Fetterman can’t qualify because he doesn’t have a functional office afaict, just doing regular service for constituents and showing up for the job

Unsurprisingly the Fetterman staffers account is not posting the promised revelations.

give us da revelations baby

sorry guys I made that account as a bit and my calendar reminder got lost in the iOS upgrade