If any Pennsylvania voters were still unaware that John Fetterman has some health issues, they’re well aware now.
After the Tuesday night debate between Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican candidate, more questions are being raised about whether or not the Democratic candidate could effectively fill the role of Senator and whether he’s being honest with the public. Voters deserve to know who they’re voting for, all the good and the bad and the in-between. If Fetterman’s job performance is going to be affected by his health, voters should have a clear picture of what that means.
The clearer picture started taking focus early on with the opening line:
Fetterman opens the debate:
"Hi. Good night everybody." pic.twitter.com/mg0X3Iwf5D
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 26, 2022
It basically went downhill from there. You can watch the full debate entirely over on this page for greater context but here are some of the highlight clips and takeaways from Tuesday night.
The moderators were extremely fair and extremely accommodating considering the circumstances. There was no visible agenda against either candidate, only a straightforward and direct amount of questioning that didn’t let either man off the hook.
One particular exchange where Fetterman cratered was over his newfound love of fracking after explicitly stating for years he wanted the practice banned:
Fetterman: “I absolutely support fracking.”
Moderator: “In a 2018 interview, you said ‘I don’t support fracking at all. I never have.”
Fetterman: “I’ve always supported fracking.”
LIAR! pic.twitter.com/9Bx6YKsy3p
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 26, 2022
The exchange continued:
What just happened? #PASen pic.twitter.com/aJRDZVFU2x
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 26, 2022
Painful to watch but a prime example of a politician experiencing an election-year conversion on an issue near and dear to the constituents in his state. Energy, and natural gas specifically, has been a life-blood of Pennsylvania for years and Fetterman has consistently been on the side of the “green” agenda and destroying America’s energy independence. To watch him try and explain his changing views comes across as disingenuous and the fact that he can’t string the words together makes it a more blatantly obvious flip-flop due to his sagging poll numbers.
When asked about inflation, his answer was simply unclear as to what he was even talking about:
Fetterman: "Here's what I think we need to fight about inflation here right now. That's what we need to fight about inflation right now because its a tax and Dr. Oz couldn't understand what that's like." pic.twitter.com/yKfIxsrU1o
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 26, 2022
During closing remarks, Fetterman interrupted Oz for some reason:
CLOSING STATEMENT from @DrOz: “Ask yourself this and others in your family, are you unhappy with where America’s headed? I am. If you are as well, then I’m the candidate for change.” #PASen pic.twitter.com/JaE7MJcevM
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 26, 2022
In total, Dr. Oz truly helped himself with this performance although at times he did come up to the line and almost over-step a few times. There were instances where it seemed that Fetterman had already done himself damage and Oz jumping on to hammer it home wasn’t prudent, but not necessarily a detriment. There’s a line here between attacking an opponent’s political views and appearing to attack a stroke victim.
The moderators did their job for the most part of making the candidates expose themselves and explain their positions. In the end, the score tips entirely in Oz’s favor since anyone tuning in to this race last night for the first time got a lesson in what commentators and analysts have been saying about Fetterman’s health, and they got to see it before their own eyes on live television.
Some Democrats are grumbling to themselves this morning wondering why Fetterman even agreed to the debate, according to Axios:
Multiple sources wondered why Fetterman agreed to debate when he clearly wasn’t ready. Fetterman struggled at times to respond to the moderators’ questions, even with the assistance of a closed captioning device.
“Why the hell did Fetterman agree to this?” one Democratic lawmaker and Fetterman backer told Axios. “This will obviously raise more questions than answers about John’s health.”
More questions will probably be the end result of this debate aside from anything else. Whether you agree with Fetterman’s issues or not becomes less of a question. The issue becomes his health and how forthcoming he’s been with voters. Democrats are trying to call this debate a “draw” which basically means they view it as a win for Dr. Oz.
Early voting has been happening in Pennsylvania for a few weeks but this debate could very well change the trajectory of the Election Day vote in just a few short days.
