Two more aides left John Fetterman’s office in recent weeks, the latest in a stream of staff exits amid the Pennsylvania senator’s shifting political persona and questions about his health.
Fetterman aides Madeleine Marr and Caroline Shaffer parted ways with his team, according to two people familiar with their departures and granted anonymity to speak freely. They left shortly before New York Magazine reported that current and former Fetterman staff are increasingly concerned about the Democratic senator’s mental and physical health, one of the people said.
Staff inside Fetterman’s office had been bracing for the magazine’s story in the days before it was published. Fetterman has denied that he is not fit to serve, calling the report “a one-source hit piece.”
A Fetterman spokesperson declined to comment, and Shaffer and Marr did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The two staffers had both worked for Fetterman’s office since early 2023, according to the congressional data website LegiStorm. The site listed them as legislative assistants.
Fetterman’s former chief of staff, top communications aides and legislative director departed his office in the last year and a half.
In addition to concerns over his health, some former staffers have been unsettled by Fetterman’s hardline support for Israel and recent meeting with President Donald Trump. Though Fetterman eschewed the “progressive” label during his 2022 Senate campaign, he supported some left-wing policies and backed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during his 2016 presidential bid.
Fetterman’s defenders, many of whom are coming from conservative circles in recent days, have argued that Fetterman is being targeted by progressives because he sometimes bucks Democratic Party orthodoxy. A Monday op-ed in The Wall Street Journal argued that Fetterman “turns out to be rather moderate, so the left claims he is mentally unfit.”
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