Anonymous ex-Fetterman staff group teases new claims about senator this week

A former staffer for Senator John Fetterman told Newsweek that the Pennsylvania Democrat had to be "begged" to carry out many of his core congressional duties, adding to concerns raised by a recent Wall Street Journal report that portrayed Fetterman as increasingly disengaged from his work on Capitol Hill.

The former staffer, who was granted anonymity because of their current employment, corroborated details reported by the Journal, which characterized Fetterman as showing "little interest" in the day-to-day responsibilities of serving in the Senate.

The allegations echo claims being promoted by an X account called "Former Fetterman Staffers," which says it is run by former campaign and Senate aides to Fetterman. According to the account's bio, the group was created to "share our stories & make sure Pennsylvanians know exactly who [Fetterman] is."

"Hello, Twitter. We’re a group of former campaign & Senate staffers for John Fetterman who are disgusted with what he's become," the account posted on September 4. "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."

Two former Fetterman staffers confirmed to The New York Times that the account is authentic and operated as a group effort.

In a separate post, "Former Fetterman Staffers" encouraged followers to look out for the "stories (and screenshots)" it will be releasing on Monday, September 14, the day the Senate reconvenes after its five-week summer recess. It added that Fetterman could "skip Monday's votes" and delay the release, however.

The account has already amassed over 162,000 followers as of Monday, despite only being launched following the Journal report alleging, based largely on interviews with former staffers, that Fetterman displays "little interest" in his congressional duties "beyond cultivating relationships with conservative media figures and advocating for Israel."

Fetterman has called the profile of him a "hit piece" fueled by the accounts of "disgruntled staffers," and in a statement to CNN said it relied on "lies, half-truths, innuendos, smears" and anonymous sources.

Newsweek has contacted the senator’s office for further comment, and will update this story if a response is received.

Fetterman, who was elected in 2022, has been facing pressure to step down from his Senate seat following the Journal report, which alleged a long-running pattern of apathy about his Senate work. Key allegations include claims that Fetterman routinely skips important hearings, is more concerned with media appearances and his pro-Israel advocacy than constituency work, and that he has avoided and canceled meetings with constituents and certain groups.

One example was officials from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) who were hoping to discuss vaccines and cuts to Medicaid last September, but whom Fetterman allegedly stood up and accused of "just want[ing] free trips to D.C."

Fetterman said the text messages cited in the report were "stripped of any context and circumstances," though he acknowledged sending the text concerning CHOP officials, telling CNN it was a "dumb joke, and for that, I sincerely apologize." He added that he meets with Pennsylvania health officials "virtually and in person."

As well as a general avoidance of Pennsylvania-specific matters and his native state in general—“he does almost no state travel"—the ex-staffer who spoke to Newsweek said that they came to see Fetterman as someone with "very little empathy," who must "be begged to do the basics of his job" and who is rarely prepared to engage with anything "that was not Israel-related."

The former aide also described the episode involving the children’s hospital officials as particularly disheartening.

"These are children, these are cancer patients, representing an organization that has been devastated in the past year by the [Donald] Trump administration and cuts made by Republicans in Congress," the person said. "And you have woken up today and decided that that’s not worth your time."

The characterization presented by the former staffer was one of a Capitol Hill office under extreme strain, revolving around someone his employees believe has no "desire or an interest or a passion for public service, and instead is really out for himself and what he can extract out of this job."

In managing the office, the person said that longer-serving staff adopted a "strategy" of "trying to contain" Fetterman—limiting his interactions with junior employees and others "because they wanted to protect those people from the unpleasantness that would entail."

According to LegiStorm, Fetterman boasts the third-highest staff turnover rate in the Senate this year—behind Republicans Bill Cassidy and Thom Tillis—and the former staffer told Newsweek that "75 percent" of those who currently work under the senator are "looking for something else."

"So, it's not a place where people are necessarily happy to be in, but they're all committed to public service, and they do the best that they can under the circumstances," the person said.

LegiStorm’s data suggest that Fetterman’s office is not an outlier on staff turnover when measured by its turnover index: a recent listing put his legislative turnover index at 0.27, compared with a Senate average of 0.28.

That comparison provides important context for the unusually visible series of departures from his office: while the exits may look striking because several involved senior aides, the broader LegiStorm measure indicates that the office’s overall turnover was roughly in line with the Senate as a whole, rather than dramatically higher.

Though he arrived in Washington as a progressive Democrat and longtime supporter of independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Fetterman’s public statements show increasing disillusionment with the left wing of his party and growing proximity to the GOP.

This has been manifested in his shifting appeal among voters.

An August New York Times/ Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena University poll of Pennsylvania voters revealed that 73 percent of Republicans held a favorable view of Fetterman—higher than the state’s Republican Senator Dave McCormick—compared to only 22 percent of Democrats.

A recent Quinnipiac University poll found, among Democrats, 19 percent approved of Fetterman and 69 percent disapproved, even as his support within Republican circles grew to 77 percent.

This drifting popularity and increasing disagreement with his Democratic colleagues over U.S. support for Israel has coincided with speculation that Fetterman could soon leave the party altogether.

Though he has denied any imminent desire to do so, the senator continues to raise doubts about his political future.

Fetterman made a surprise appearance at the GOP’s midterm convention last week, in which he called himself a "common-sense Democrat" while vowing to "reject the extremes and socialism and that anti-American way of life."