Too Many Jabs?

Fetterman Rumored Brain-Dead as Dems Attempt to Avoid Special Election...

Viral tweet has received more than a million views and 18,000 likes as of Saturday night...

ByBen Sellers
February 26, 2023
John Fetterman / PHOTO: AP


(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) A viral tweet from John Cardillo, a former NYPD officer turned conservative radio host and social-media influencer, called for an investigation into whether Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., may be clinically brain dead as Democrats engage in a cover-up to avoid a special election before August.

Cardillo’s tweet made a significant splash on social media, garnering more than a million views and 18,000 likes as of Saturday night.

However, Headline USA was unable to verify the accuracy of either claim—that Fetterman was clinically brain-dead or that an Aug. 18 deadline would allow far-left Gov. Josh Shapiroto avoid calling a special election.

Headline USA reached out to both Cardillo and to Fetterman press secretary Joe Calvello, and we will update with any response.

Pennsylvania law stipulates that a special election must be held “at the time of the next general or municipal election, occurring at least ninety (90) days after the happening of such vacancy.”

Fetterman’s near-fatal stroke was widely concealed by and later downplayed the media during his senatorial race last year, enabling him to handily defeat celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz on the strength of early mail-in balloting before the two had even debated.

After a brief hospital stay in early February, during which he ostensibly felt “lightheaded,” Fetterman reportedly checked himself into the hospital on Feb. 15 for clinical depression.

Reports indicated that he would likely remain in his convalescence for weeks.

Shapiro, however, has said he has no intention of asking Fetterman to resign and expects him to “come back stronger than ever,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Mainstream media coverage has largely heralded Fetterman for his bravery in being open about his struggles with mental illness rather than faulting him for covering it up during the election.

Democrats historically have had a difficult relationship with situations similar to Fetterman’s.

In the 1972 presidential election, Democrat vice-presidential nominee Thomas Eagleton’s history of receiving shock-therapy treatments was credited with helping sink candidate George McGovern’s bid to unseat incumbent President Richard Nixon.

Prior to that, in October 1919, a massive stroke by then-President Woodrow Wilson was concealed by his administration, allowing first lady Edith Wilson to reportedly run the White House. Wilson’s private secretary, the unelected Joseph Tumulty, was said to have thought that then Vice President Thomas Marshall was up to the task, while Edith Wilson disliked him for his “uncouthed” disposition.

Likewise, many have suspected that if John Fetterman were incapacitated then Shapiro might appoint his wife, Gisele, to fill the spot.

While Gisele Fetterman has appeared to take an exceedingly active role in her husband’s campaign and governing, she seems to have had considerably less interest in his recovery process.

Rather than stay by his bedside, she reportedly took their three children recently on a zipline adventure in upstate New York.

Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/realbensellers.