United States Senator John Fetterman, of Pennsylvania, is responding to disgruntled former staffers and negative news stories in some media outlets.
The Democrat told KDKA's Marty Griffin he knew there would be pushback from staff for his positions supporting Israel after the Hamas attack and opposing a government shutdown
“That’s a disaster for government employees and plunging millions and millions of people into chaos and I led the charge to keep the government open,” said Fetterman.
Fetterman also answered critics who say he's missing Senate votes.
“I have three young kids and now I would spend my time with the kids that night to miss those throw away procedural kinds of things that they were never that important,” said Fetterman.
The senator says opponents are smearing him with claiming he has mental illness.
Fetterman’s health was a target for Republicans during his campaign against Dr. Oz in 2022.
He says more progressive Democrats are saying he has mental illness, something that Fetterman’s doctor warned him about.
“If you announce, in a very public way, that you got treatment for depression, it’s like now people can weaponize that and use that,” said Fetterman.