Fetterman’s team released a letter Wednesday written by Dr. Clifford Chen, a family practice physician, after Chen had met with Fetterman on Friday. According to the letter, Chen said Fetterman was recovering well after suffering a life-altering stroke in May, and said the Democratic candidate could “work full duty in public office.”
According to public records from the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Chen has donated $1,330 to Fetterman’s campaign, most recently contributing $100 September 23 to “Fetterman for PA.”
News of Chen’s contributions to Fetterman’s campaign sparked backlash on Twitter, and reopened the conversation on Fetterman’s ability to serve as senator.
Matthew Foldi, reporter for The Washington Free Beacon and former congressional candidate in Maryland, tweeted on Wednesday that Chen’s letter was “an alleged clean bill of health” in response to a report from the website.
“Hahahaha the doctor giving John Fetterman an alleged clean bill of health is a JOHN FETTERMAN DONOR,” Foldi wrote.
Conservative political activist Louis Marinelli mocked Fetterman’s campaign for taking “so long to get a new statement out” about the candidate’s health.
“Your campaign needed to go through its donor list and filter them by employer to find the doctors and then cold call them one by one until someone would sign off on a [bulls**t] statement like this,” Marinelli said.
Radio host and political commentator Mark Davis wrote on Twitter that it was “not a huge problem” that Chen was a donor to Fetterman’s campaign, saying he “would hope my doctor would contribute to me if I ran for something.”
“The problem is the letter is a joke,” Davis continued. “He still has a language processing impediment, with no clue as to when it will resolve.”
According to the report from the Free Beacon, Joe Calvello, a spokesman for Fetterman’s campaign, said the letter from Chen wasn’t “about politics.”
“It’s an independent, detailed medical report written by John’s primary care doctor based on his latest office visit from last week,” Calvello said.
Chen acknowledged in his letter that Fetterman did still exhibit symptoms of an auditory processing disorder, but said that his “speech was normal” and that Fetterman “spoke intelligently without cognitive deficits.”
Fetterman is scheduled to debate his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, on Tuesday. According to FiveThirtyEight, Fetterman is leading 50.3 percent to 47.4 percent in voting projections for next month’s key Senate battle.
Newsweek has reached out to Fetterman’s campaign for comment.
