{"id":280404,"date":"2026-09-06T16:52:48","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T16:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/280404\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T16:52:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T16:52:48","slug":"pennsylvania-senator-dismisses-smears-from-disgruntled-staffers-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/280404\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania senator dismisses ‘smears’ from ‘disgruntled staffers:’ report"},"content":{"rendered":"

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHP) \u2014 Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman dismissed claims from “disgruntled staffers” who were cited in a Wall Street Journal report last week.<\/p>\n

The report <\/a>claimed Fetterman has regularly skipped meetings with constituents, committee hearings, and even the funeral of three police officers who died in his hometown<\/a> because he felt it was too long.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Sen. Fetterman didn’t attend funeral of 3 fallen officers because it was too long: report<\/a><\/p>\n

Fetterman described the allegations as “lies, half-truths, innuendos, smears and anonymous” in a statement to CNN.<\/a> CBS 21 reached out to Fetterman on Friday but has not heard back. <\/p>\n

According to CNN, Fetterman responded to specific text message exchanges published by the Journal. <\/p>\n

Fetterman reportedly told CNN that he expressed his condolences to the police officers’ families privately and publicly. It’s unclear if Fetterman addressed the specific reason he didn’t attend the funeral. <\/p>\n

In another reported exchange, an aide told Fetterman that representatives from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) were worried about vaccines and Medicaid cuts. Fetterman allegedly replied, “Well I’m not.” <\/p>\n

Fetterman called that comment a “dumb joke, and for that, I sincerely apologize,” according to CNN. <\/p>\n

Another time, Fetterman reportedly canceled a meeting with paralyzed veterans about healthcare legislation because he felt sick. He still made an appearance on Fox News for an interview hours later. <\/p>\n

Fetterman told CNN he was throwing up at the time but later felt well enough for the interview. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHP) \u2014 Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman dismissed claims from “disgruntled staffers” who were cited in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-280404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}