(The Hill) — Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) opened up about his first six months in Congress and did not hold back about how the institution functions.
“There’s a fixation on a lot of dumb s—. Bad performance art is really what it gets down to,” Fetterman said in an interview with The New York Times.
The freshman senator said everything in Washington is turning into a “culture war,” adding that not everything “has to be a think piece.”
Specifically pointing to the debt ceiling, he claimed here shouldn’t have been drama.
“The fact that we’re playing with something like that is antithetical to the stability of our democracy,” he argued, calling everyone in Washington “cynical.”
“But we can fight for things that are meaningful,” Fetterman said, adding “We’re fighting for women’s reproductive freedom, making sure we have resources and support our unions. I’m going to fight for what’s really important.”
Fetterman also opened up about being away from his family all the time for his job.
“You realize when you become a senator, you’re going to be spending 50 percent less time with the people that you love,” the Pennsylvania senator said. “That breaks my heart.”
“I get emotional thinking about it,” he added. “FaceTime is much better than just a phone call, but that’s the worst part of the job.”
His remarks come months after he checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for clinical depression earlier this year. He left his rehab program at the end of March.
Fetterman said “it’s a burden, but a privilege, too” to talk about his mental health struggles.
“It’s also an opportunity to be very bipartisan. Red or blue, if you have depression, get help, please,” Fetterman said. “Don’t ever, ever, ever harm yourself. Do not leave behind a blueprint of that.”