Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) on Tuesday mocked a running conspiracy theory on the far right that he’s somehow been replaced by a body double.
Several posts this week went viral on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, suggesting that the Democrat from Pennsylvania is being impersonated by different look-alikes. The unfounded claims tend to spring up every time he is in the news ― more as of late ― and appear to question his ability to serve in the Senate following his stroke, which left him with auditory processing difficulties and halting speech.
“I have to talk to my other,” Fetterman deadpanned when asked about the conspiracy theories during a brief interview with HuffPost on Tuesday.
“It’s all truth. I’m Senator Guy Incognito,” he added, referring to a “Simpsons” joke in which Homer Simpson encounters a doppelganger who has a hat and a mustache, but otherwise looks and sounds exactly like him.
It’s not the first time Fetterman, who recently began sporting a mustache, has jokingly played around with the fringe theories. In April, he posted a video where he interrupts himself explaining that the rumor was false:
Fetterman seems to be letting his hair down, so to speak, engaging more with reporters in Senate hallways and delivering colorful remarks about the Republicans’ push to impeach President Joe Biden and even the new Senate dress code.
Republicans have been sharply critical of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for doing away with an informal rule that senators must wear business attire or coats on the Senate floor, allowing senators to wear whatever they want, even a hoodie.
“It’s a terrible decision on the part of Chuck Schumer to denigrate the institution of the Senate by having people wearing hoodies and shorts,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said Tuesday. He added that senators should “show a level of decorum associated with the place.”
But Fetterman, who wore his trademark short-sleeve shirt and shorts on Tuesday, decided not to take advantage of the new rule during a vote that day. He cast his ballot by ducking his head through the chamber doors as usual.
“I just don’t want the world to burn down,” he joked when asked why he didn’t go in. “The Republicans think I’m going to burst in through the doors and start break dancing on the floor.”