It would appear that the left's knives are out for the increasingly independent-minded Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), as the media just published yet another obvious hit piece against the man who was once heralded just a couple of years ago as a rising star of the Democratic Party.

A new anonymously sourced report alleges that Fetterman's "erratic behavior" during a recent meeting compelled one of his staffers to break down in tears, according to Newsweek.

The claim comes amid a transparently faux narrative of concern about the senator's mental health and well-being, which was conveniently ignored following his 2022 stroke and initial recovery but has now become an issue after Fetterman has strayed from the Democratic Party's line on a handful of issues.

Fetterman's meeting meltdown allegedd

The Associated Press, citing unnamed sources, reported on Thursday that Sen. Fetterman prompted one of his staffers to cry during a meeting with teachers' union officials after the senator allegedly suffered an emotional and mental meltdown.

Per the anonymous source, Fetterman began to repeat himself, raised his voice, slammed his hand on the table, and shouted things like "everybody is mad at me" and "why does everyone hate me, what did I ever do," among other things.

That behavior reportedly sparked the concerns of a staffer, who then moved to end the meeting early and escorted the union officials out into a hallway, where she is said to have broken down in tears and needed to be comforted by the similarly "rattled" union figures, according to another unnamed source.

Asked to respond to those claims, Fetterman's office said in a statement that the senator and union officials "had a spirited conversation about our collective frustration with the Trump administration’s cuts to our education system," and added that Fetterman "will always support our teachers, and I will always reject anyone’s attempt to turn Pennsylvania’s public schools into a voucher program."

Mental health under increasing scrutiny

Coincidentally enough, that alleged incident shared by the AP is said to have transpired just one day before New York Magazine's Intelligencer published a highly negative hit piece that purported to expose the grave concerns of Sen. Fetterman's inner circle about the current status of his mental health.

That piece, which largely cited the Pennsylvania senator's former chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, along with a few anonymous current and former staffers, asserted that Fetterman was not following the advice of his doctors nor taking his prescribed medications, was clashing with and pushing away those who were trying to help him, had marital issues stemming from political differences, and was increasingly engaging in reckless and self-destructive behaviors, among other complaints.

Of course, when similar concerns about Fetterman's health and well-being were raised by outsiders in the aftermath of his stroke and during his first year as a senator in 2023, they were brusquely downplayed or dismissed by Democrats and their media allies.

However, now that Fetterman has displayed an independent streak, primarily through his staunch support for Israel and his openness to working cooperatively with President Donald Trump on certain issues, many of those same Democrats and media pundits who previously defended him to the hilt are now acting as though they've been deeply concerned about him the entire time.

In response to the Intelligencer article earlier this week, Newsweek reported that Fetterman dismissed it as "a one-source hit piece," and told a reporter that it "involved maybe two or three anonymous, disgruntled staffers saying just absolutely false things."

Sudden concern raises skepticism

To be sure, it is quite plausible that Sen. Fetterman is still suffering the ill effects of the stroke that nearly killed him in the middle of his 2022 campaign for the Senate, and truth be told, he probably should have dropped out of that race and politics altogether, at least temporarily, so that he could focus solely on his recovery.

That said, Democrats and the media insisted at the time that he was fine and should keep running, swiftly dismissed the legitimate early concerns about his mental health and capacity to do his elected job, and only now have turned on him with anonymously sourced hit pieces after he has strayed off the Democratic Party plantation one too many times.