U.S. Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) was ridiculed in the conservative media when he received treatment in 2023 for severe depression after suffering a stroke. The Daily Beast took the temperature of right-wing empathy at the time and delivered this headline: ‘Fox News Pundits Seem Hell-Bent on Punishing John Fetterman for Having Depression.
[NOTE: Fetterman was treated more respectfully by his Senate colleagues, notably with Republican John Thune praising Fetterman’s “transparency” as a virtue.]
Discharged in March of 2023 after his six-week stay at the neuropsychiatry unit of Walter Reed Military Medical Center, Fetterman spoke openly about his physical and mental struggles, and how he was able to “come out of the darkness.”
The Senator is now speaking out to protect the family of MAGA congresswoman Lauren Boebert (R-CO) — after her 18-year-old son was arrested for what the Rifle Police Department listed as “four felony counts of Criminal Possession ID Documents – Multiple Victims, one felony count of Conspiracy to Commit a Felony, and over 15 additional misdemeanor and petty offenses.”
This is a family in crisis and the recreational cruelty I see on social media needs to be out of bounds.
I know the impact this has on children. I’m calling for restraint because cruelty has substantial collateral damage.
We can’t ever forget that they didn’t sign up for this. https://t.co/SAbFMYsOCk
— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) February 28, 2024
Fetterman, a father of three children, wrote on X: “This is a family in crisis and the recreational cruelty I see on social media needs to be out of bounds. I know the impact this has on children. I’m calling for restraint because cruelty has substantial collateral damage. We can’t ever forget that they didn’t sign up for this.”
it’s rare that I disagree with you. People are not making fun of the young man —who, by the way, is making other people suffer. But how can you not have a certain sense of irony here, considering the viciousness of his mother and her constant repetition of the phrase “Biden crime…
— Judith Newman (@judithn111) February 29, 2024
Some of Fetterman’s constituents disagree with his sentiment. As New York Times ‘Help Desk’ columnist Judith Newman replied to Fetterman: “It’s rare that I disagree with you. People are not making fun of the young man — who, by the way, is making other people suffer. But how can you not have a certain sense of irony here, considering the viciousness of his mother and her constant repetition of the phrase ‘Biden crime family’?”