Sure, Gisele Barreto Fetterman may have fled the country with her kids the moment her husband was hospitalized with severe depression, but she’s not abandoning her home state.
Instead, the 41-year-old Fetterman is keeping busy fighting fires in East Pittsburgh. Or at least cosplaying like she is.
After People magazine published a puff piece about Gisele being “spotted fighting [an] apartment fire” in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, eyebrows were raised regarding just how little she seemed to be doing in a video from WTAE-TV.
“Gisele Barreto Fetterman, whose husband is freshman Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, stepped in to fight a dangerous blaze in East Pittsburgh,” the magazine reported. “Gisele was seen with her fellow firefighters at the scene of the three-alarm fire early Tuesday.”
Boy, sounds like she was doing some dangerous stuff. Or not:
“Wearing her full gear, Gisele walked through the area while on the phone in footage captured by Pittsburgh Action News,” People noted.
If this sounded flippant and reductive, trust us: It wasn’t.
Fighting a fire?!?!?! From the article “Wearing her full gear, Gisele walked through the area while on the phone” – This is like saying the CEO of Ford builds cars while walking through the factory ?? pic.twitter.com/o7hXS0subu
— Tanner Mireault (@TannerMireault) March 9, 2023
Boy, that’s some “Backdraft” stuff right there. Is there anything this woman can’t do? I mean, besides being by her husband’s side while he’s hospitalized with depression after suffering a major stroke last year.
This woman will do anything but be next to her husband
— Factotum (@emery__bored) March 9, 2023
According to People, Fetterman announced she was joining the Rivers Edge 113 volunteer fire crew in December.
“Say hello to Rivers Edge 113 newest member,” she said in a social media post at the time, adding that there was “still lots of work ahead but excited and ready to learn.”
.
Voters can smell a photo op when they see one — especially when, just a few months later, Gisele’s firefighting chops (at least those caught on camera) involved walking through the scene talking on her cellphone.
Fighting a Fire: “Gisele was seen with her fellow firefighters at the scene of the three-alarm fire early Tuesday. Wearing her full gear, Gisele walked through the area while on the phone…”
She fought the fire by talking on her phone and walking in the area.— Komrade Pinkachu (@bob_hoke) March 9, 2023
With full make up and hair down to boot. Amazing…
— Vince (@VGmt0800) March 9, 2023
she needs a new pr firm. this should be a photo of her covered in sweat and soot shot after she actually did something.
instead we get her smiling with her hair down. who fights a fire with their hair down???— ADDICTNYC (@ADDICTNYC) March 9, 2023
No she wasn’t.
.
She was spotted taking up an important spot on a team.
.
No equipment ever touched her had, her “gear” didn’t even get dusty.
.
It was a photo opp.— Chris Bradley -???? The / She / It (@ThirdMonkeyCast) March 9, 2023
You mean she posed in a costume for photos?
— oldmanstillyelling (@timmytimtimco) March 9, 2023
Fighting the fire or standing at the truck?
— Captain Ron (@CaptRonFulmer) March 9, 2023
Fetterman’s activities with the volunteer fire corps are even more optically problematic when one considers that the senator’s wife — who has kept a deliberately high profile during her husband’s time in politics — isn’t exactly camped out at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where Fetterman is being treated.
According to a Thursday report in The New York Times, “for now, Mr. Fetterman is spending his days not at the Capitol but 12 miles northwest at the sprawling Walter Reed campus, where he takes long walks on the trails and participates in talk therapy sessions. His doctors are continuing to monitor the dosages of his medications.
“Mr. Fetterman often spends his afternoons and evenings with visiting family members — his parents and his brothers often come to the hospital and stay until dinner time. At least once a week, his wife Gisele visits from Braddock, Pa. There are no limits on how long his visitors can stay, or when they are allowed in. His small circle has been mostly limited to two staff aides and his family.” (Emphasis ours.)
Oh, at least once a week! Just like, at least once this week, she was spotted walking through the aftermath of an apartment fire, looking fresh as a daisy in unblemished firefighting gear and her hair down.
Maybe she was doing quite a bit more than we saw here, but going on what we have, nothing here makes her look great, and optics are everything. Thankfully, the media are always willing to cover for Democrats at every possible turn.
Also, say what you will about this being a photo op — but if it was, John and Gisele are a match made in heaven. After all, she’s doing just as much as a spouse and a firefighter as her shiftless failson husband did in his entire life before getting elected senator.
They’re practically made for each other. In health, that is. Not in sickness.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
