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AVERICK R


After near-death experience, Sen. John


Fetterman defies the status quo. By Matthew Lysiak


eflecting on his life journey, pennsylvania’s democrat U.S. senator pauses, momentarily overcome with emotion. He stares down for several beats before lifting his head back up, grinning. “I’ve been dead once already. It’s very liberating,” he says.


John Fetterman is quoting the character of Joker, played by Jack


Nicholson in the 1989 Batman movie, when the villain explains how his outlook on life has changed since nearly dying after being submerged in a vat of toxic chemicals. Fetterman says the quote resonates with him deeply on a personal


level. “I’ve all but died, and now, coming back, I have found that to be very


freeing,” he tells Newsmax in a wide-ranging interview. Fetterman is, of course, referring to his own near-death experiences


— his 2022 stroke, which was followed by bouts of depression so severe he contemplated suicide — as his impetus for transformation both in the context in which he views himself in the world and in his ability to prioritize what truly matters. But in coming so close to losing everything, Fetterman says he now


feels free to do anything. Politically, that has meant liberating himself from the need to con-


form to the ideological dogma that afflicts both sides of the political divide — even if that has led to the alienation of many in his party and of a media that had once adored him. “I don’t mean to be vulgar, but I’ve run out of f***s to give.”


FEBRUARY 2025 | NEWSMAX 53


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