One Democrat senator admitted to being “blinded” by his own political assumptions during the COVID-19 pandemic as Dr. Anthony Fauci repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment during a Senate Committee hearing on Wednesday.
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman confessed he regrets allowing political partisanship to influence his rejection of the “Right-wing theory” that COVID came from the Wuhan lab in China during the early days of the pandemic. Fetterman said the so-called lab leak theory, which was branded as a conspiracy by the legacy media, had “seemed to make sense,” but added that it “became a very partisan thing.”
“Early on, there was the theory that the virus could have emerged from the lab, and early on that became like a ‘Right-wing’ kind of theory and I thought it seemed to make sense,” said Fetterman. “Now there was a really advanced lab that was close by, and then you have this unknown virus out. But that became a very partisan thing, and now it seems now it’s a more and more emerging theory that it would have come from the lab.”
Fetterman, who was uncharacteristically dressed in a suit at the hearing, said he hopes the next time America faces a crisis, it is not “blinded by the partisan idea that maybe the truth might come from a side that’s different that you are,” as he “might have been” blinded.
“Americans should be willing to pursue truth no matter where that may have emerged,” said Fetterman.
Fetterman was the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania throughout the COVID pandemic and worked alongside Democratic Governor Tom Wolf and trans-identifying Secretary of Health Rachel Levine to implement some of the most draconian mitigation policies in the nation, including extended school closures and forcing senior citizens to die alone in nursing homes.
Fetterman adamantly supported Wolf and Levine’s policies, including a universal masking mandate that required children as young as 2 years old to be masked whenever leaving home. He also begged Pennsylvanians to “just wear a mask” in a November 2020 video. Wolf implemented a second lockdown in Pennsylvania in December 2020 that extended to January 2021 and further devastated local businesses during the holiday season.
Fetterman noted during the hearing that members of his family had died from COVID and also said he grieves for people who lost their businesses due to pandemic decisions and will “never be the same.”
“During the pandemic I was lieutenant governor so we were in the middle of all of that maelstrom, trying to find the right balance between protect life and protect the economics of all of it,” said Fetterman. “I’m not sure if we got it all right or wrong, but without a doubt I continue to question myself.”
Fetterman is an outspoken supporter of transgenderism and supports the inclusion of men in women’s sports. In a March 2025 post on X, Fetterman wrote, “The small handful of trans athletes in PA in a political maelstrom deserve an ally, and I am one.”
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