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ICYMI: U.S. Senator John Fetterman Joins Meghan McCain to Talk Family Life, Mental Health, Psychedelics, Politics

Watch the full interview here.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yesterday, U.S. Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) joined Meghan McCain on Citizen McCain for a conversation around mental health and his own struggles with depression, being a family man, what it means to represent all Pennsylvanians, and working across the aisle at a time when politics has become increasingly polarizing.

See highlights below and watch the full interview here.

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McCain: I got to meet your youngest son. You’re raising three kids. What advice do you give to them every day? (…) Do you have conversations with them about the divided world we’re in? And do you have any parenting advice for, not only people with famous parents, but people raising teenagers?

Sen. Fetterman: I’m incredibly proud of the kids, and I’ve always told them to stay off social media. One of the things that I might have regretted as a parent is allowing them to even–

Parents have a choice, it’s like make it the forbidden fruit or do you just allow them to just experience it and they might discover the right conclusion. (…) I wonder if I made the right choice by allowing them to experience those things.

Now, I’m partnering up with Katie Britt, a Republican, for Stop the Scroll. If you had a friend that’s spending hours and hours and hours with your child, you’d want to know about the kid, and you’d want to know about their parents, and you’d want to know where they live, and you’d want to know about those circumstances. That best friend is social media. (…) Social media, it is shaping society without a doubt. We need to make it more safe and more responsible because kids are going to be a part of it, and find a way to do it.

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McCain: What made you decide to be so open about your struggles with depression and your mental health in general?

Sen. Fetterman: I’m not sure if it’s still a political win to talk about mental health and the ultimate S-word, suicide. But that’s what’s appropriate if you’re in that space, and I decided to do it because it’s such an important conversation. There’s an epidemic here in our nation; 50,000 Americans last year took their lives. That’s the ultimate tragedy. (…) I beg people, I say I don’t know what your path was that put you in that dark, dark place. If you stay in that game, and you promise yourself that you won’t take yourself out, that puts you back on the path.

I never took any actions, but I seriously considered it, and every single day is affirming that thank god I got lucky and I was able to realize. For me, that emergency brake was my kids. I discovered that they really wanted me to stay around and they loved dad. That was mine, some people might not have their own emergency brake. 

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McCain: Do you have any feeling about the fast tracking of the FDA studies like ibogaine, and these psychedelics that President Trump and Joe Rogan are saying are helpful?

Sen. Fetterman: Oh yeah, that’s fantastic. I’ve actually been pushing that for years. Back when I was Lieutenant Governor, I decided to do town halls all across every single of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania, no matter how small. (…) I went to every single one of those counties talking about legalizing marijauna and consistently, in every single meeting, veterans were coming and they were begging, “Can we just legalize this?” (…) As far as psychedelics, Pennsylvania is the second biggest mushroom producer in the entire world, and I thought, what an amazing opportunity. Why can’t we just make this part of the research and the solution? I have had veterans sitting in these town halls saying, “This is what I need.” When I saw that announcement, I thought that’s fantastic, one-hundred percent.

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McCain: Do you enjoy being a senator? 

Sen. Fetterman: It is absolutely an honor that Pennsylvania picked me to be their voice. I think they elected me to play it straight, and some things I agree with and some things I don’t. It would be easy to represent a state like Connecticut, I could just yell and yell. (…) Democrats have campaign commercials saying “Fuck Trump” that won it in Illinois, and that is what pays the bills. I am not going to engage and continue to degrade the tone of the conversation. That does not mean I do not agree with some things happening on the other side, but it does mean we have to find a way forward and a better way to do it. (…) I do enjoy the job, but how dysfunctional it is, that part is becoming frustrating. 

McCain: Do you think there is a pathway for independence and a pathway forward with voices like yours?

Sen. Fetterman: It is depressing honestly, more and more extreme things are getting not just platformed but pushed. There are more extreme parts of the conversation and I know what pays the bills as a democrat but I refuse to engage on that. I hope there are a lot more Americans that are tired of the extreme parts of this rhetoric, but all I can be is just that one voice. (…) If it is something that is the right thing for the country I am going to support it. I am labeled as disloyal or that I am changing or that I am not doing anything, (…) but what you elected is someone who is going to represent all Pennsylvanians.