An adviser to Pennsylvania Sen.-elect John Fetterman already admitted the senator would not be able to answer questions in the way lawmakers usually do, due to health-related conditions.
Rebecca Katz, a longtime Fetterman adviser, said there are “two things we need to get out of the way” regarding the senator-elect when responding to a reporter’s tweet saying Fetterman did not answer a question on Tuesday about if he would be wearing a hoodie — his typical campaign attire — on the Senate floor.
“John Fetterman has a suit and will wear it to the Capitol,” she tweeted, admitting, “He is still recovering from a stroke and has lingering auditory processing challenges. The way Hill reporters are used to yelling questions at Senators will not work here.”
Fetterman’s stroke, which happened the day before Pennsylvania’s primary election, played a significant role in the election against Republican Mehmet Oz, a Donald Trump-backed retired cardiothoracic surgeon and former television show host.
On the campaign trail, Republicans, including his opponent, attacked his mental health and inability to properly function on the campaign trail, including his slow responses and needing closed captioning during his debate with Oz and a one-on-one interview with NBC News’s Dasha Burns.
During one of the debates, Fetterman would also not commit to releasing his full medical records after he suffered the stroke by dodging the question. When asked a second time if he would release his medical records, Fetterman said, “My doctor believes that I’m fit to be serving, and that’s what I believe is where I’m standing.”
Additionally, the week before the election, Fetterman claimed during an interview with CBS News he has released “more kinds of medical evaluation … than virtually anyone, unless you’re running for president.”
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.