Pundits stunned by ‘painful’ Fetterman performance in Pa. Senate debate
October 26, 2022
Fetterman, the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor, lapsed into
uncomfortable silences and mixed up his words throughout the debate.
Longtime political observers were shocked by Democrat John Fetterman’s display in Tuesday night’s Senate debate against Dr. Mehmet Oz, in which the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor repeatedly stumbled over his words — and lapsed into incoherence on more than one occasion.
Fetterman, who suffered a stroke in May, struggled to make himself understood throughout the showdown after releasing a doctor’s note last week that claimed he was fit to hold office.
Despite using a closed captioning system to help him understand what the two debate moderators and Oz were saying, Fetterman repeatedly lapsed into uncomfortable silences and mixed up his words.
At one point the tattooed 53-year-old said, “I do not believe in supporting the Supreme Court” in response to a question about whether the high court should have its traditional nine justices.
Fetterman struggled to speak at times during Tuesday night’s Senate debate against Dr. Mehmet Oz.
There is no amount of empathy for and understanding about Fetterman’s health and recovery that changes the fact that this is absolutely painful to watch,” tweeted New York magazine’s Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi at one point.
In another awkward moment, Fetterman gave a jumbled answer following a long pause after he was asked about his stance on fracking.
“I do support fracking and — I don’t, I don’t, I support fracking and I stand and I do support fracking,” he managed to say after the moderator pointed out Fetterman had stated clearly in a 2018 interview that he did not support the controversial procedure.
Conservative attorney and podcast host Jeff Blehar noted that Fetterman’s answer was “gonna cost him in W. PA,” where fracking is a significant part of the local economy.
I am no longer in the snide juvenile position where I can mock people with obvious difficulties as they age, or experience catastrophic medical events,” Blehar added. “I have … lived through it. But he shouldn’t be running, and aside from that, there was no good answer anyway to this flip-flop.”
After the debate, Democrats and journalists were left to pick up the pieces.
“It’s not his fault, but Lt. Gov. Fetterman struggled,” NewsNation host Chris Cuomo said off the top of his post-debate show. “And again, I’m not faulting him for it, I don’t think his preparation was great, but he clearly is dealing with health issues.”
“I spoke to Fetterman recently, and I expected him to be very bad tonight,” tweeted Charlotte Alter of Time magazine. “But he was much much worse than I expected (and much worse than in our one-on-one conversation.)”
“Democrats are asking the same thing post-debate: Why did Fetterman’s team allow him to take the stage tonight? No one I’m talking to on the left has a good thing to say about what just took place,” tweeted The Hill reporter Al Weaver.
“Whoever decided to let Fetterman debate should never be involved in Democratic politics ever again,” pronounced Elections Daily editor-in-chief Eric Cunningham.
Republicans were quick to pounce on the Democrat’s struggles.
“Shame on Democrats and the Pennsylvania media for pretending like @JohnFetterman is well. This is so sad,” tweeted former President Donald Trump’s onetime acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell.
Former
Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell tweeted “Shame on
Democrats and the Pennsylvania media for pretending like John Fetterman
is well. This is so sad.”
“I can’t believe it’s this bad. I feel bad for Fetterman. This is sick,” political commentator Tim Pool chimed in.
Others were less sympathetic.
“Fetterman could have stepped down and he didn’t. He doesn’t deserve sympathy,” tweeted Fox News’ Lisa Boothe.
“Just so we are all clear: that was Fetterman WITH weeks of prep and specialized computer assistance throughout. So what you just saw is the very, very best Fetterman can do. Which is terrifying,” former Trump adviser Stephen Miller said.
Author and commentator Nick Young added, “If Fetterman were a Republican, this debate would be an SNL cold open.”
Republican Pennsylvania candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz participates in the Senate debate on Oct. 25, 2022.
Political strategist and commentator Ana Navarro-Cárdenas, meanwhile, lauded Fetterman for taking the stage in his condition.
“Fetterman’s aware he has auditory & processing issues as a result of stroke. He could’ve refused to debate like some candidates have. Instead, he went out there and let voters see his challenges and healing process. Support him or not, that takes courage, humility and honesty,” she tweeted.
Fetterman’s camp attempted to excuse his poor performance even before he got on stage.
On Monday, the campaign issued a memo warning the media to be prepared for “awkward pauses” and Fetterman “missing some words, and mushing other words together.”
After the debate, his team said in a statement they were “thrilled” with Fetterman’s performance.
“He did remarkably well tonight – especially when you consider that he’s still recovering from a stroke and was working off of delayed captions filled with errors,” they said.
Fetterman used a similar closed captioning system during an interview with NBC News’ Dasha Burns earlier this month. After the interview, Burns was accused by Fetterman’s own wife of being “ableist” after noting that “it did seem that [Fetterman] had a hard time understanding our conversation” without the assistance of subtitles.
Fetterman and Oz, 62, are seeking to replace retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey in a race that could decide the balance of power in the United States Senate.
The latest RealClearPolitics polling average showed Fetterman leading Oz by just 1.3 percentage points, down from a high spread of 8.7 percentage points in mid-August.
Oz’s support has surged among GOP voters in recent months, with the percentage of Republicans who say they will vote for the celebrity heart surgeon rising to 94% from 87% in September, a CBS News/YouGov survey found.
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John Fetterman debate was painful and shameful — he is physically incapable of being a senator
October 25, 2022
Eleven years ago, Texas Gov. Rick Perry destroyed his bid for the presidency when he said in a debate that he had three examples of something and then could only remember two.
That’s all it took — and rightly so. Debates afford voters a rare chance to see politicians under pressure having to think on their feet and respond to unexpected events.
I’ve never seen anything like the Pennsylvania Senate debate between John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz on Tuesday night, and I hope never to have to see anything like it ever again. It was horrible. I didn’t think I would ever experience a moment as painful in the midst of a political campaign as the Perry moment, but that was like watching Pavarotti sing “Nessun Dorma” compared to this.
The stroke that Fetterman himself said “knocked” him down at the debate’s outset has impaired him. Full stop. Don’t believe anyone who even tries to tell you different, and you should probably not trust any such person to tell you whether you need an umbrella because you don’t know whether it’s raining.
Seeing Fetterman struggle to answer simple questions and form simple sentences was nothing less than an agony. There’s no sense even in trying to characterize how he did in expressing himself on issues, or how Mehmet Oz did talking about matters ranging from abortion to fracking to Social Security.
Only one thing mattered, and that was watching Fetterman try to make a showing of himself despite his painful impairment. I don’t want to quote what he said or make specific note of his speech patterns or answers because it would be unnecessarily cruel.
Could Fetterman improve? Yes. Will he improve? We do not know. During the debate he refused to say he would release actual medical records rather than a clearly ginned-up letter from a doctor who is one of his donors.
What this debate made entirely clear is this: It is an act of personal, political, and ideological malpractice that Fetterman is still contesting for the Senate.
A month ago Fetterman could have dropped out and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party could have put up a different candidate for his office — like Rep. Conor Lamb, who lost to Fetterman in the primary. It’s an act of political and ideological malpractice because he and his team have left Democratic voters with no option other than to close their eyes to what they saw and vote for someone who should not be in the Senate — or to vote for his rival. Or not to vote at all.
It’s an act of personal malpractice on the part of those who encouraged him to continue because this singularly upsetting performance is not the way any person on this Earth — and particularly not someone who suffered a calamitous brain shock — should become famous or notorious or be remembered.
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THANK YOU JOHN FETTERMAN
by Bob Walsh
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