Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was involved in a car crash on the morning of June 9, his spokesperson told The Epoch Times on June 10.
His wife, Gisele Fetterman, was also in the car, which was rear-ended on a highway in Maryland, according to the spokesperson.
“Out of an abundance of caution, they were evaluated at a local hospital. John was treated for a bruised shoulder and they were discharged that afternoon. They are doing well and happy to be back in Braddock,” said the spokesperson.
Mr. Fetterman will be back in the Senate this week for votes, said the spokesperson.
Mr. Fetterman, 54, has a history of medical issues.
He suffered a stroke in May 2022 while campaigning for his Senate seat. As a result, he still has some trouble speaking fluidly and quickly processing spoken conversation, and he often uses devices in congressional hearings and routine conversations to transcribe spoken words in real-time.
The stroke caused Mr. Fetterman to remain at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for more than a week, and he didn’t immediately return to the campaign trail. That led to speculation about his fitness to serve in Congress, a concern that persists.
When he returned to campaigning, Mr. Fetterman’s speech pattern was halting and less confident. His campaign explained that he had auditory processing issues. He garbled words, dropped words from sentences, and needed closed captioning during a political debate. In recent days, Mr. Fetterman has often worked from prepared remarks.
In February 2023, a month after being sworn into the Senate, Mr. Fetterman checked into Walter Reed Military Medical Center outside Washington to be treated for depression.
Earlier that month, Mr. Fetterman was discharged from George Washington University Hospital in Washington, where he was under observation for several days after experiencing lightheadedness during a Senate Democrat retreat. During that visit, doctors ruled out a stroke and said they found no evidence of seizures.
Recently, Mr. Fetterman has been in the spotlight for his staunch support of Israel amid pushback from progressives, though he has rejected that label. He has posters of Israeli hostages who are being held in Gaza displayed in his Senate office.
Additionally, Mr. Fetterman has voted against his party five times. He was the only Democrat to vote no on Monica Bertagnolli’s confirmation to direct the National Institutes of Health.
He was one of four Democrats who voted no to increase the debt ceiling.
He also agreed with Republicans on a resolution to disapprove a rule written by the Department of Commerce regarding President Joe Biden’s June 2022 emergency and authorization for temporary extensions of time and duty-free importation of solar cells and modules from Southeast Asia.
“He’s not a typical liberal Democrat, which most of us thought he was during the course of his campaign,” said G. Terry Madonna, senior fellow in residence for political affairs at Millersville University, who has watched Mr. Fetterman’s political career from the start.
It is not uncommon for politicians to change their view, Mr. Madonna told The Epoch Times. “The fact of the matter is, he’s evolving.”
But he’s not turning into a conservative.
“I’ve not seen any evidence, except for those two issues, that he’s moved away from the liberal mantra, but there have been growing questions about him because of these two big issues that he’s come out with [views] very different from liberal Democrats,” Mr. Madonna said.
