Claim:
The Democratic Party attempted to silence U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., in a foiled “deep state assassination plot” in November 2025.
Rating:
A rumor that circulated online in November 2025 claimed the Democratic Party attempted to silence U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., in a foiled “deep state assassination plot.” Some users shared the headline “Deep State Assassination Plot Foiled: Democrats’ Lethal Bid to Silence Fetterman as Trump Exposes the Corrupt Elite” and claimed the Newsmax TV network reported the alleged news.
This matter began circulating Nov. 13, on the same day a Fetterman spokesperson confirmed in a post (archived) on the senator’s official X account that he fell during a morning walk and was subsequently hospitalized. The statement attributed his fall to a ventricular fibrillation “flare-up,” leading him to feel light-headed, fall and hit his face, sustaining minor injuries. The post further said he was “doing well.”
Statement from Sen. Fetterman’s Spokesperson:
“During an early morning walk, Senator Fetterman sustained a fall near his home in Braddock.
Out of an abundance of caution, he was transported to a hospital in Pittsburgh.
Upon evaluation, it was established he had a ventricular…
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) November 13, 2025
In short, the rumor was completely fabricated. Newsmax never published such a story. The claim originated from the Facebook (archived) and Instagram (archived) accounts of Jonathan Gregory (@newsmax.baby), who publishes satirical articles with text resembling the same way artificial-intelligence tools generate stories.
Snopes contacted Cabelle St. John, Fetterman’s chief of staff, by email to ask if she wished to share a statement about the untrue story going around online. We also reached out to Gregory via Messenger to inquire about his content. We will update this article if we receive further information.
Digging into the rumor
On Nov. 13, the same day as Fetterman’s reported fall, Gregory posted (archived) the fabricated story on Facebook, attributing the writing to himself. The post began:
Deep State Assassination Plot Foiled: Democrats’ Lethal Bid to Silence Fetterman as Trump Exposes the Corrupt Elite
By Jonathan Gregory
Washington D.C. – November 13, 2025
In a chilling revelation that underscores President Trump’s longstanding warnings about the deep state’s ruthless tactics, Senator John Fetterman has emerged as a prime target for elimination by his own party, viewed as an uncontrollable liability after breaking ranks with radical leftist agendas. Sources close to the investigation reveal that Fetterman collapsed near his Pennsylvania home shortly after a suspicious doctor switch orchestrated by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer through the Office of the Attending Physician, a shadowy Capitol clinic serving congressional elites. The new physician prescribed a deadly cocktail of blood pressure medications, Losartan (ACE inhibitor), Amlodipine (calcium channel blocker), Metoprolol (beta-blocker), and Hydrochlorothiazide (diuretic), known to cause catastrophic hypotension, especially with sudden dosage increases or in dehydrated states, leading to dizziness, collapse, and potential death. A pharmaceutical expert bluntly stated that “switching so suddenly to a massive amount would kill a bull,” fueling suspicions of foul play as investigators probe whether this was a deliberate sabotage to silence Fetterman’s growing independence.
The rest of the story mentioned tech billionaire Bill Gates and ended, “It’s time to wake up, Trump’s leadership is the bulwark against this one world tyranny, and Fetterman’s ordeal is the smoking gun that could finally bring them down.” The end of the post misleadingly mentioned a tag for Newsmax as “@newsmax,” even though the TV network never published the article.
Gregory also shared the matter as an Instagram video, including with voice narration sounding very much like AI-generated speech. Other users shared the story, copying and pasting its text, on Facebook (archived) and X (archived).
The Fetterman story’s opening and closing sentences, in particular, included writing that had hallmarks of AI-generated content, such as the forward-thinking and dramatized wording in the final sentence asking people to “wake up” and talking about “Fetterman’s ordeal” being the “smoking gun.” (While AI-detection websites are not verifiably reliable, Copyleaks and ZeroGPT both detected at least some AI-generated text.)
While the made-up Fetterman tale did not explicitly mention the word “satire,” past stories Gregory published featured the words “satire” or “satirical” in the second half of its text, placing the prime hint of the untrue nature of each story in a spot some readers might miss. Past fact-check articles reported on other fabricated stories originating from Gregory’s Facebook account.
For further reading, speaking of outlandish rumors, we previously investigated the claim that Delta Force operators raided former U.S. President Barack Obama’s “stronghold” in Thailand.
