U.S. Sen. John Fetterman is facing intense criticism from former staffers and fellow Democrats — and the mounting pressure, much of it from anonymous sources, doesn’t figure to subside soon.

A Wall Street Journal story published Thursday included several examples of Fetterman dodging meetings or public events. They included a funeral for three police officers killed in York County, where Fetterman grew up, and a meeting with three paralyzed military veterans from rural Pennsylvania.

The story also shared a text message exchange in which Fetterman was dismissive of a meeting request from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. When an aide told Fetterman that CHOP was concerned about vaccines and Medicaid cuts, Fetterman wrote back, “Well I’m not.”

Fetterman broke his silence on the Journal story over the Labor Day holiday weekend.

In a statement to CNN on Sunday, the news outlet reported that Fetterman characterized the Journal story as a “hit piece” based on information from “disgruntled staffers.”

“Per usual — lies, half-truths, innuendos, smears and anonymous,” Fetterman said in the statement.

While Fetterman claimed that the leaked messages in the Journal’s report were “stripped of any context and circumstances,” he described the remark he made related to CHOP as a “dumb joke, and for that, I sincerely apologize,” adding that he and his office have worked closely with the organization.

Fetterman’s office has not responded to questions from TribLive.

Fetterman, once considered a rising progressive star, has faced criticism from fellow Democrats and praise from many Republicans for breaking with his party and showing a willingness to work with President Donald Trump. He has long insisted that he has no plans to leave the Democratic Party, though over the summer he said he would if the party ever adopted a platform to cut off aid to Israel.

A poll released last month by The New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena University showed that more registered Republicans had a favorable opinion of Fetterman (79%) than U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, a Republican from Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill (62%).

Fetterman had a 21% favorability rating among Democratic likely voters.

Fetterman and McCormick have become political allies since the latter took office in January 2025. Over the weekend, McCormick came to Fetterman’s defense.

“These stories are the latest example of outrageously disloyal staff and forces on the Left using anonymous leaks to cancel my friend John Fetterman,” McCormick wrote on X. “They hate that he is an independent thinker who refuses to fall into line so they want to silence him.”

An X account called Former Fetterman Staffers was created last week after the Journal published its report.

“If you were troubled by yesterday’s Wall Street Journal story … trust us, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s even worse than you thought,” Former Fetterman Staffers wrote in its first X post on Friday.

“We’ve come together to share our stories (and screenshots) to show Pennsylvanians exactly who their Senator is,” the account added in a second post. “Set your calendar for September 14th — the day the Senate is back in session — for our first drop.”

But the account added that its first release of information might wait until Sept. 15: “Let’s be honest … he’ll skip Monday’s votes.”

The X account had more than 161,000 followers as of Tuesday afternoon. Its two posts had more than 13 million views combined on the social media platform, with nearly 20,000 reposts and more than 5,000 replies.