Senator John Fetterman’s chief of staff released photos of himself and the senator doing some work Monday. Just two men sitting together at a table looking like they were talking about some important stuff. Except this was a meeting of the two men in a mental health facility and Fetterman is a patient there. He is being treated for clinical depression.

Productive morning with Senator Fetterman at Walter Reed discussing the rail safety legislation, Farm Bill and other Senate business. John is well on his way to recovery and wanted me to say how grateful he is for all the well wishes. He’s laser focused on PA & will be back soon. pic.twitter.com/143uAhoQRx

— Adam Jentleson (@AJentleson) March 6, 2023

Our colleague at Twitchy tweeted the response most of us probably had when looking at Jentleson’s tweet – “Nice photo-op.”

Nice photo-op.

— The🐰FOO (@PolitiBunny) March 6, 2023

My reaction was that it reminds me of proof of life photos we see of hostages or others being held against their will. We haven’t seen Fetterman because he’s been hospitalized since February 15, voluntarily, for clinical depression. Fetterman’s staff released an update on the senator last week saying that there really isn’t any information to share as an update. It was an update but not an update, or something. At the same time it was revealed that Fetterman’s wife, Gisele, loaded up their three kids into the car and drove to Canada for some time away from the situation. She said the kids were off from school and media trucks were all around her house. It was almost like Harry and Meghan – she claims she wants privacy but then she goes on social media and says what she’s doing and where she is.

The message the staff wants to get out is that everything is fine. Fetterman is working from the hospital and will “be back soon.” Fetterman is back to wearing a Carhartt hoodie and shorts. It looks like he has lost a lot of weight.

Questions were raised last week when a rail safety bill was announced by a bipartisan group of senators from Pennsylvania and Ohio. Fetterman joined in on the bill, despite being hospitalized. Fetterman was named as a co-sponsor, along with Sens. Bob Casey (D-PA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), J.D. Vance (R-OH), and others to address averting future crises like the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Fetterman’s office touts it as just one example of how he is doing his job.

How can a senator who is hospitalized for clinical depression co-sponsor bills from his hospital room? The answer is that the staff does most of his work. Either chief of staff Adam Jentleson or senior advisor Bobby Maggio visit Fetterman at the hospital most mornings. They brief him for about an hour. They bring updates and ask for input on questions. Jentleson said, “The legislative process doesn’t really require a senator’s physical presence. It requires their intellectual engagement, and he’s in a place where he’s able to offer that.”

When it came to the rail safety bill, for example, Jentleson said Fetterman asked about what unions for rail workers wanted. The issue not only affects a large swath of the senator’s constituents, it resonates with his pledge to stand up for “forgotten communities.”

“He was very tuned into the issue,” Jentleson said.

That’s all well and good but some staff from other offices disagree. It’s important for senators to show up for work and use person-to-person contact to convince colleagues of the need for legislation a senator is interested in or to be able to work with the White House on an important issue. Staff can do a lot of the work but not everything.

Yet some longtime Senate aides say workarounds can only go so far.

“OK, you signed onto a bill. But what are you doing to make it into a law?” asked Matt Beynon, a Republican operative who once worked for Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.).

Staffers can help negotiate a bill or draft a press release. They handle nearly all constituent services. But Beynon, who expressed sympathy for Fetterman’s health problems and wished him well, said that on tough issues, personal interaction is one of a senator’s most powerful tools. Only a senator can corral a colleague or a Cabinet secretary who’s on the fence.

To be fair, staffers in most senate offices do 80% of the work. They handle almost all constituent services. A number of senators have missed more time out of the office than Fetterman due to illness or strokes. However, they were more established in their offices than is Fetterman. He has only been in office since January. Since then he’s been hospitalized twice now, including for almost a month during his current hospitalization. Can he do the job? Special accommodations have been made for him to help him communicate in the Senate. Is the stress of not being more fully recovered from his life-threatening stroke and the everyday pressures of elected office too much for him to handle?

Fewer photo-ops and more real updates. That is what his constituents deserve.