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Sometimes when Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman hears voices, they sound like the adults in the ‘Peanuts’ cartoons, in which a muted trombone was used to give them indecipherable language.
The New York Times reported Friday about Fetterman’s struggles adjusting to life in the Senate as he continues to recover from his May stroke.
The report comes after the Pennsylvania Democrat spent his second night at George Washington University Hospital and checked in Wednesday after feeling dizzy at a Democratic retreat in Washington, DC.
Fetterman was released from the hospital on Friday, and according to his office, “His EEG test results were normal, with no evidence of seizures.”
The 6-foot-8-tall, tattooed Democratic politician is expected to return to the Senate on Monday.
Senator John Fetterman arrives Tuesday night for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. Fetterman spent Wednesday and Thursday nights in the hospital after feeling dizzy at an event in DC on Wednesday.
On Friday, The New York Times published a report on Fetterman’s stroke recovery, including the fact that Pennsylvania Democrats hear voices like the adults in Peanuts cartoons: a muffled trombone, in which the language is indecipherable.
Fetterman did not speak to The Times, but his advisers and allies told the newspaper that his run into the Senate has been a difficult period, especially as he still struggles with hearing processing.
That means you have to use a transcription tablet to engage in conversation.
Last week, Time magazine reported about the accommodations the Senate has given him so far, including installing a monitor on Fetterman’s desk in the Senate chamber that provides live captioning and equipping him with a wireless tablet for committee hearings.
The Times reported that Fetterman’s hearing problems are inconsistent and often worsen when he is in a stressful situation.
His speech also remains halting and confused, evident when he asked questions at his first hearing as a senator, as part of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.
Still, his office sent out video clips of the comings and goings.
Fetterman won his race, easily the most watched in the country, against Trump-endorsed television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz by five points, despite the effects of his stroke showing in full during the debate in the candidates in mid-October.
Colleagues have been taking it easy.
“We’re going to have to learn our own styles with him,” Senator Amy Klobuchar told The Times.
She said she recently experimented with speaking into Fetterman’s tablet to provide him with captions of their conversation.
“What he was saying was accurate even when he was talking fast,” he said. I wanted to make sure it was accurate. It was kind of hard to imagine what it would be like to be him.
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., told the newspaper that she approached Fetterman at White House receptions for new members of Congress, and they had an exchange of views about their clothing choices.
Fetterman, usually in shorts and a hoodie, sported a suit, Perez opted to wear boots, jeans and a Carhartt jacket.
“I thought I was going to have an ally here,” he said. ‘He said, ‘Why can she wear jeans and I can’t?’
Perez said Fetterman’s tablet allowed them to converse easily.
“It’s just a slight delay,” he described to The Times. At first I didn’t realize I was using it. So I was like, ‘Why are they holding him back?’ It took me a minute to realize what was happening.
But while he has interacted with his colleagues, Fetterman hasn’t spoken to the many Capitol Hill reporters lurking in the hallways because of his auditory processing issues.
A staff member told Time magazine that aides are working on accommodations so the Pennsylvania Democrat can participate in those impromptu interviews.
“Before the stroke, he was the type of person who loved to give and take with reporters,” said Adam Jentleson, Fetterman’s chief of staff. “The challenge is to be able to return to that place, given the current limitations.”