Fetterman reveals Senate debate 'lit the match' on his debilitating depression

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Sen. John Fetterman speaks with Biden in Philadelphia

Wearing shorts and a hoodie, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman praised the speed of Biden's efforts to repair a collapsed bridge

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., told Time Magazine in an interview Thursday that the lone debate he had with Dr. Oz before the midterm elections was the breaking point that "lit the match" on his depression. 

In a piece headlined, "How John Fetterman Came Out of the Darkness," Fetterman revealed to Time Magazine that it was the debate that accelerated his depression. 

Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in February after he was diagnosed with clinical depression.

"The debate lit the mitch," he said twice before finally being able to correct himself, "Lit the match."

U.S. Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) and his wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, stand during the singing of the National Anthem before Josh Shapiro is sworn in as Governor of Pennsylvania at the State Capitol Building on January 17, 2023 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  ((Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images))

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Fetterman told Time that he knew he had to do the debate with Oz. 

"I knew that the voters deserve to have what, what the stroke has done to me—transparency that way," he said. 

The Pennsylvania senator added that after the debate he considered himself a "national embarrassment," and Time reported, that was when the "darkness came."

Fetterman believes the debate with Oz would be remembered as a "debacle," the magazine reported. 

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) gestures to reporters as he arrives at the U.S. Capitol on April 17, 2023 in Washington, DC. Fetterman is returning to the Senate following six weeks of treatment for clinical depression. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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Fetterman told the outlet that his wife, Gisele, had to force him to attend the orientation for new members of Congress after he was elected. 

"Think of the insanity of that," Fetterman told the magazine. "I work for two years. And at the end of that, after nearly dying, after the most infamous debate in American politics, I was going to not show up for orientation. That’s what depression does."

The Democratic senator appeared in Philadelphia in June, where he donned a hoodie and shorts and spoke alongside President Biden after part of I-95 collapsed. 

President Biden, center, watches live footage of a portion of Interstate 95 being rebuilt after a collapse, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 17, 2023. Sen. Fetterman and other officials look on. (JULIA NIKHINSON/AFP)

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"Little over a year ago, the president and I were standing right next to each other at a collapsed bridge in Western Pennsylvania, a bridge that I drove over just the night before with my young son. He showed up within just hours after that bridge collapsed there," Fetterman said, referring to Biden. "And he promised to make sure that any resources that they needed and any help and support and guess what? That bridge was built less than a year well, well in front of time."

"And now I'm standing next to the president again next to a collapsed bridge here," he added. "He is here to commit to work with the governor and the [delegation] to make sure that we get this fixed quick, fast, as well, too. This is a president that is committed to infructure [sic], yeah, and then on top of that the jewel kind of a law of the infraction [sic]."

Fox News' Kyle Morris contributed to this report.