Fetterman Gets Emotional Discussing His Processing Struggles at Disability Access Hearing

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) choked up during a Thursday hearing on disability rights while discussing his auditory processing struggles, something he’s lived with since suffering a near-fatal stroke last May. While posing a question to witnesses at the hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, the Pennsylvania Democrat briefly detoured to share his personal journey with disability access. In the wake of his stroke, he said, he’d “lost my ability to fully process language.” And while that experience had raised his empathy “to a whole different kind of level,” other people weren’t always so accommodating. “Because I live in a political environment, I was ridiculed and made fun of,” he recalled, growing briefly emotional. “... I’m so sorry that—I’m sure many of you had to go through this kind of thing.” Demonstrating a live transcription software on his iPhone, Fetterman said he couldn’t imagine life without the service, which he likened to “a bridge” to other people. He ended by asking the witnesses how they thought he and his colleagues could “become more empathetic, more responsive, and more effective senators.”