Or he plans to return to work.
Maybe. One day. Hopefully.
Sen. John Fetterman plans to return to the Senate the week of April 17 after more than a month of inpatient treatment for depression, according to two people with direct knowledge of his plan.
The Pennsylvania Democrat began receiving treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in mid-February. His return will be welcome news for Senate Democrats, who have a slim majority and have struggled to deal with absences over the last month.
It remains uncertain exactly when Fetterman will leave the hospital, but a person close to Fetterman confirmed he will be back to his Senate business after the coming two-week April recess. Fetterman is not the only senator who has been absent from the Senate. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) have also missed significant time. McConnell was recently released from physical therapy after suffering a concussion and a minor rib fracture.
LOL, nice spin, Politico. He's been in the hospital during almost his entire tenure in the Senate. And when his opponent said this is what would most likely happen, you and rest of the evil propaganda media said he was lying and that anyone doubting his capacity to serve was just an "ableist."
Fetterman's chief-of-staff, Adam Jentleson, tweeted earlier this month that "John is well on his way to recovery and wanted me to say how grateful he is for all the well wishes" and that he is "laser focused on PA & will be back soon."
Yeah sure.
Matt Margolis at PJMedia points out that Fetterman's handlers have claimed that he'll be back at work "soon" in the past. Only to then admit that he'll remain in the hospital a little bit longer.
[T]he bottom line is that Fetterman has now been at Walter Reed for over a month, and there's still no timeline for his return. So what's going on?
According to a spokesman for the impaired senator, Fetterman is "on the road to recovery" but will continue to be absent from the Senate for a few more weeks.
"We understand the intense interest in John's status and especially appreciate the flood of well-wishes," Fetterman's communications director, Joe Calvello, said in a statement earlier this week. "However, as we have said, this will be a weeks-long process and while we will be sure to keep folks updated as it progresses, this is all there is to give by way of an update."
If this update was meant to reassure us that Fetterman would be back to work at the Capitol soon, don't be fooled. Fetterman's aides have repeatedly been moving the goalposts on us. Earlier this month, Fetterman's chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, similarly told us that Fetterman was "well on his way to recovery" and would "be back soon."
At this point, I suspect we'll hear the same thing about Fetterman's "progress" in a few weeks, followed by yet another one after that, and another, and another. How much longer are we going to be subjected to this ridiculous farce? Fetterman's staff must be clueless about his actual condition (or hiding something) because their so-called "updates" have been about as informative as a Magic 8 Ball. It's like they're just kicking the can down the road, hoping nobody notices how little they're actually saying, and avoiding the inevitable.
How is everyone enjoying living in an Empire of Lies?
'Paucity of information publicly made available' about Fetterman leaves a dangerous vacuum
by Salena Zito, National Political Reporter
...
The challenge reporters and his constituents have faced has never been the illnesses from which the father of three suffers, whether it be the stroke, the heart condition, or the current mental health crisis. Rather, it has always been the lack of transparency coming from the personal and political team that orchestrates Fetterman's every move. From the get-go, they have conducted a case study on how not to be forthright.
When Fetterman suffered his stroke, it took days for anyone to know it had even happened. When he had a pacemaker installed, reporters found out only as the procedure was beginning. It then took several more weeks for them to admit the heart condition that had caused the stroke, cardiomyopathy, had actually been diagnosed five years earlier and that Fetterman failed to take his medication or follow up with treatment after that diagnosis.
Fetterman ran for lieutenant governor in 2018 and then filed to run in the primary for U.S. Senate last year, all without revealing his medical condition. When all of this unfolded last year, multiple news organizations, including the Washington Post, called on him to be transparent about his health status. His team did the opposite.
Since the revelation of his heart condition, no doctor has spoken publicly about the status of his cardiomyopathy, outside of the letter released in June by the cardiologist who had seen him five years ago. No one knows whether he or any other heart doctor is still treating Fetterman. Repeated questions to his team as to whether he is being treated by a heart doctor have gone unanswered, meaning the extent of his current heart condition is also unknown to the public.
According to the Yale School of Medicine, cardiomyopathy can weaken the heart, leading to more serious conditions, including lessened blood flow, arrhythmia, problems with the heart's valves, and heart failure. Cardiomyopathies require the management of any present symptoms and the prevention of further complications. But for five years, Fetterman apparently failed to take preventive measures or follow doctors' recommendations.
...
When Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in mid-February for clinical depression, his aides told the New York Times they did not anticipate it would be longer than a few days. When a month passed with no news on his condition, his staff posted a photo of him with his chief of staff at Walter Reed.
On Friday, three weeks after that photo was posted, Senate staffer Joe Calvello told the Philadelphia Inquirer that "John will be out soon. Over a week, but soon."
When there is a vacuum of information, as has been the case from the very beginning with Fetterman, people find information, good and bad, with which to fill it. This is why you can find a plethora of conspiracy theories on social media filling those holes on an hourly basis.
That vacuum has also created what-if scenarios for if Fetterman resigns. And no one has authoritatively filled the vacuum as to what is going on, and not for the first time since he suffered his stroke.
...
Given that Fetterman is a statewide officeholder, Madonna reasoned that the public needs to have full awareness and appreciation of his health situation. "They need a full explanation in order to understand the status of his health," he said. "That doesn't mean he should quit. That doesn't mean he should resign. But it is very difficult to make a judgment about the status of John Fetterman's health because of a paucity of information that has been publicly made available."
They lie to you, and when you attempt to guess at what the truth is, they call you a conspiracy theorist.
A few weeks ago, a commenter said that if Fetterman can avoid resigning -- or dying - until August, the Democrat governor can avoid calling for a special election, and can install someone in Fetterman's seat until the regular 2024 elections. But if Fetterman is out of office before then, he has to schedule a special election before 2024. Which will also be an off-cycle election, where Republicans will probably have an edge.
So is that the game? Play Hide the Fettermonster until August?