Sen. John Fetterman hit back on Sunday against allegations from former staffers that he was shirking his responsibilities, downplaying the bombshell report as “smears” against him.
Fetterman told CNN in a statement that he rejected accusations detailed in The Wall Street Journal that the Pennsylvania Democrat neglected committee duties, dodged face time with constituents and complained about attending police officers’ funerals.
“Per usual — lies, half-truths, innuendos, smears and anonymous,” Fetterman told CNN.
“No matter how many smears or stories, I’m proud to continue to deliver for Pennsylvania,” he added.
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The Journal’s report, posted Thursday night, cited text messages between Fetterman and his staffers in which he was reluctant to attend a funeral for fallen police officers and skipped meeting with Pennsylvania constituents.
The senator told CNN the messages were “stripped of any context and circumstances.”
Fetterman said that he made a “dumb joke” and he wished to “sincerely apologize” for a text exchange where he told a staffer he wasn’t concerned about Medicaid cuts raised by officials with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The senator said he had met with officials from the hospital and remained committed to advocating for it.
Fetterman’s statements have created a rift with parts of the Democratic Party, which he openly threatened to leave earlier this year if it “officially become[s] the anti-Israel party.”
The senator’s willingness to break with his party on key votes — including supporting Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation — has also prompted criticism from his Democratic colleagues.
In response to the messages in which Fetterman reportedly called a three-hour-long funeral service for fallen police officers in Pennsylvania a “nonstarter,” the senator said he shared his condolences with the families.
“On the day of that tragedy, we privately ordered flowers to be delivered for their families and expressed my condolences publicly,” he told CNN, citing a post on X expressing his grief. “In June of this year, I privately attended a Tunnel to Towers fundraiser in York for the families. I met with their chief and the family members directly to express my personal condolences.”
Fetterman also addressed the time he skipped a meeting with three paralyzed veterans on health care legislation but appeared on Fox News shortly after.
“It was my intention to meet with the group,” Fetterman told CNN. “Prior to the meeting I was at home throwing up, so I asked my staff to continue with the meeting which they did. Hours later, I felt well enough to continue the day as scheduled.”
Ex-staffers have raised concerns about Fetterman before the Journal’s report. The Democrat has been open about his mental and physical health struggles, and was hospitalized for depression in 2023 during his first year in office.
New York Magazine reported in May 2025 that Fetterman’s former chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, flagged concerns about the senator to his physician in a 1,600-word email.
Some of Fetterman’s former staff created an account on X and threatened to drop more information on Sept. 14 when the Senate returns to session “to show Pennsylvanians exactly who their Senator is.”
Though Jentleson said he’s not involved in the account, he encouraged the staffers to share their stories with media outlets not through anonymous posts on X.
“There are many crazy things about this story, but one is that this is an entirely new group of staff who have rotated in and apparently find themselves horrified at Fetterman’s behavior,” Jentleson wrote Thursday on X in response to the Journal’s report.
This story has been updated with further information about Fetterman’s comments to CNN and the Journal’s reporting.
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