John Fetterman barely coherent during Senate Banking Committee hearing

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman took part in a Senate Banking Committee hearing focusing on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the seemingly never-ending bailouts provided to financial institutions by the United States government.

When it came his time to question the witness, Fetterman appeared to struggle through each sentence, the auditory processing issues brought on by his stroke making it hard for him to communicate.

Fetterman began by slamming the witness' colleagues for having "went to go to Hawaiis after there was a crash of your bank."

"So, I went up on the Internet, and it's like, it did happen. It did happen. It did happen," he said. "It's in Fortune, the second-biggest bank in US history collapsed and chose to go to Hawaii on that. You know, I've never been to Hawaii and neither has my family. I guess I've never cranked– excuse me, crashed a bank."

When the witness denied allegations that the readiness with which the US bails out big banks was a "running joke" in the profession, Fetterman replied, "doesn't it feel that now if a bank really believed that they wouldn't be bailed out, now after bailing them out, these couple of bailouts, they are going to."

"Do you believe that that is not outrageous that, no matter how deplorable your performance is, you are made as whole and all by … taxpapers?" he asked. "What do yous believe?"

In a statement to Fox News, Fetterman's spokesperson, Joe Calvello, reiterated that the Pennsylvania senator "continues to have auditory processing issues due to the effects of his stroke."

"If sickos on the internet want to keep making fun of John for recovering from a health challenge, that's between them and their consciences," Calvello added, suggesting that critics are "just shouting into the wind."

Fetterman has suffered from a slew of health issues, and recently spent months in hospital being treated for depression.