Sen. Fetterman on ‘Late Show’: Takes swipes at lawmakers, talks hoodies and health scare

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman took some swipes at his colleagues in Washington, D.C., during a Wednesday appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” The interview included discussions about his health issues and the challenges facing the U.S.

Oh, and confirmation of his being “a Sheetz guy.”

Wearing his trademark Carhartt hoodie, athletic shorts and sneakers, Fetterman told the late-night host of his suffering a stroke in May 2022 while traveling to a campaign event.

“I was walking out of a restroom at a Sheetz — you know about WaWa and Sheetz, well I’m a Sheetz guy — and my wife, Gisele, said, ‘Oh my God, you’re having a stroke, you’ve got to get to a hospital.’”

Fetterman said his wife was alerted to his medical condition because the side of his face was drooped.

“That stroke nearly claimed my life,” he told Colbert. “Nearly dying is a major downer.”

Colbert questioned what it was like to have his health issues, which includes battling depression, made public.

“You sign up for that gig, it’s part of the job,” he said. “But the better I get, the sadder Fox News becomes. Every word I missed was like candy for Fox. There’s even a conspiracy that I have a body double.”

The reference to “missing words” addressed an issue Fetterman faced following the stroke, which affected his auditory processing abilities and made him appear confused during public events.

To compensate, he now uses a tablet that provides captioning to help him better understand what’s being said.

He said having a device to help him cope with the problems he faced helped make him “a more empathetic person.”

”I never thought about captioning before the stroke,” he said. ‘I am an advocated for anybody with a disability to have the kind of technology that allows them to fully participate in society.”

Fetterman told Colbert of his bout with depression after the stroke and urged people facing the a similar challenge to seek help.

“It’s a duty and privilege to talk about this,” he said. “I get emotional. Because, when you’re in the blackness, depression tricks you into thinking you have lost even when you’ve won.

“I was a skeptic that this (medical condition) is never going to change. But don’t ever make the decision to harm yourself. Succumbing to that (seeking help) isn’t weakness. It works.”

Colbert turned the remarks into a segue about the culture in Washington.

“Speaking of people who need help, the House of Representatives is a mess,” Colbert quipped. “Do senators feel good right now that they are not the most dysfunctional part of the government?”

Fetterman said the level of dysfunction in Washington is beyond what most people know.

“Really, I want everybody to realize just how truly dysfunctional it really is,” he said. “I always tell people, please don’t worry, it’s worse than you think.”

Fetterman chided lawmakers for focusing on things such as the Senate dress code instead of serious issue.

He said he was struck by the intensity of the dress code issue saying it was presented as if “the world is going to burn because he’s wearing a hoodie on the (Senate) floor.

“Ukraine, the government shutting down — all these issues are more important than what this man wear’s on the floor of the Senate,” Fetterman said.

To help ease the tensions, Colbert presented the senator with a tuxedo T-shirt. Fetterman ended the segment by giving the host one of his hooded sweatshirts.

Fetterman, who has frequently taken to social media to poke fun at his fellow lawmakers, was asked by Colbert if meeting them face-to-face was uncomfortable.

“Is it awkward to be in the capitol and run into people that you have put up a devastating meme about? You have an excellent meme game.”

Fetterman responded with another less than glowing assessment of his colleagues.

“All you need to know is that America is not sending their best and brightest to Washington,” he said. “Sometimes you literally can’t believe that these people are making the decisions that are determining the government. It’s actually scary.”

Fetterman said that as the deadline quickly approached for a government shutdown, some lawmakers were more focused on scoring points with viewers of political TV shows than working to address the issue.

“We have some very less than gifted kinds of people there who are willing to shut down the government just to score points on Fox News,” he told the host.