Fetterman ‘painful’ performance in Pa. Senate debate stuns Pundits

Longtime political watchers were taken aback by Democrat John Fetterman's performance in Tuesday night's Senate debate against Dr. Mehmet Oz, in which the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania repeatedly fumbled his words and occasionally lost his composure. After releasing a doctor's note last week claiming he was fit to hold office, Fetterman—who suffered a stroke in May—struggled to be understood throughout the debate. Fetterman frequently lapsed into awkward silences and muddled his words, despite using a closed captioning system to help him understand what the two debate moderators and Oz were saying. The tattooed 53-year-old once responded to a query about whether the Supreme Court should have its customary nine justices by saying, "I do not believe in supporting the Supreme Court." At one point, Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi for New York magazine tweeted, "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. When asked about his position on fracking, Fetterman paused for a long time before responding incoherently. After the moderator noted that Fetterman had made it abundantly clear in a 2018 interview that he did not support the contentious practice, Fetterman was finally able to respond, "I do support fracking and —I don't, I don't, I support fracking and I stand and I do support fracking." In West Pennsylvania, where fracking is a significant component of the local economy, Fetterman's response was "going to cost him in W. PA," according to conservative attorney and podcast host Jeff Blehar. Blehar continued, "I am no longer in the snide juvenile position where I can make fun of people with obvious difficulties as they age or go through catastrophic medical events. "I have... survived it. However, he shouldn't be running, and even if he wasn't, there was still no satisfactory response to this flip-flop. Democrats and journalists were left to pick up the pieces after the debate. During his post-debate show on NewsNation, host Chris Cuomo said, "Lt. Gov. Fetterman struggled, but it's not his fault." And once more, I don't blame him for it; I don't think his preparation was great, but he obviously has health problems. Charlotte Alter of Time magazine tweeted, "I spoke to Fetterman recently, and I expected him to be very bad tonight." He was significantly worse than I had anticipated (and notably worse than in our one-on-one conversation), though.