During Tuesday’s Senate Banking Committee hearing, Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania had trouble sticking to his line of questioning.
After being hospitalized for a long time to treat his anxiety and depression, Senator Fetterman has recently returned to the Senate. Still, he struggles with the aftereffects of his near-fatal stroke during his Senate campaign.
It’s mind-boggling to think that a bank’s CEO can dramatically impact the economy. Wow,” Fetterman remarked.
When he elaborated, Fetterman launched into gibberish.
“That’s like if you have — I mean like — and they also realize that — that now they have — it’s in — they guaranteed a guaranteed way to be saved by… [unintelligible]… how?”
It got worse from there, never fully getting his thoughts together or getting on solid footing. Fetterman seemed to be struggling as he appeared to urge for stricter rules on banks as a general rule.
He then seemed to veer off topic, stating he would use the former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank as an “example” and then discussing the Republican plan to tie work requirements to SNAP benefits.
Although Fetterman initially argued that calls for mandatory labor requirements for food-insecure families were inappropriate, he later reversed course, asking that banks be required to work if they are bailed out. It is unclear what Fetterman meant because banks are filled with working people.
His point probably made sense in his mind, which is the problem.
Due to his continued recovery from a stroke, the senator from Pennsylvania was provided with a tablet to view closed-captioned responses to his questions during committee hearings. At Fetterman’s desk in the Senate chamber during full Senate sessions, the Sergeant at Arms (SAA) reportedly erected a permanent live caption display monitor.
The Senate has decided to use human TV captioners to deliver Fetterman’s captions instead of AI due to concerns over accuracy.
