PITTSBURGH — Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) sought to mitigate damage to his Senate bid from his heavily scrutinized debate with Dr. Mehmet Oz (R), arguing in extensive remarks during a campaign rally that his recovery from a stroke would not affect his fitness to serve in Congress.
“And here’s the thing also about that debate,” Fetterman told a cheering crowd, which his campaign said numbered 3,300, that gathered in an outdoor amphitheater in downtown Pittsburgh on Wednesday to hear from the lieutenant governor and his special guest, musician Dave Matthews. “I might not get every, every word the right way, but I will always do the right thing in Washington, D.C.”
“I have a lot of good days, and every now and then, I’ll have a bad day,” Fetterman added. “But every day, I will always fight just for you.”
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The lieutenant governor, 53, spoke for nearly 14 minutes before Matthews performed, with the subject of his stroke, suffered just before winning the Democratic nomination for Senate on May 17, and the pace of his recovery dominating his comments.
Although smoother on the concert stage than on the debate stage 24 hours earlier, Fetterman’s difficulty with vocabulary and forming coherent sentences was still plainly evident. He attempted to downplay these glaring cognitive impairments with a mixture of self-deprecating humor, appeals for heartfelt sympathy, and claims Oz is betraying his duty as a doctor by using his illness against him for political gain.
At least with his supporters, Fetterman’s strategy is working to keep them in the fold.
“It went pretty much the way I expected, from the standpoint that I know that John is still struggling to get over his stroke,” said Jeff May, 69, who was in Pittsburgh with his wife to cheer Fetterman on Wednesday after both watched the one-hour debate on Tuesday. “I was dismayed that [they] spent so much time on that instead of the issues.”
“I have a degree in speech and hearing,” added Anne May, 68. “I feel that, somehow, they should have explained it better when you have a stroke that could take up to a year to get back to normal, and I think people are not giving him a chance because of that.”
Both said they are confident that Fetterman is physically and mentally prepared to serve on Capitol Hill if he wins Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat in the midterm elections, one that could determine which party holds the majority in January. “It’s up here,” Jeff May said, pointing to his brain.
But Fetterman’s emphasis on his condition and efforts to minimize it as relevant faced by wavering voters in what is a margin-of-error contest suggest his campaign is concerned the lieutenant governor’s performance in his televised showdown with Oz could be a devastating politically setback. It occurred just two weeks before Election Day.
“To be honest, doing that debate wasn’t exactly easy, you know? You knew it wasn’t going to be easy after having a stroke after five months. In fact, I don’t think that’s ever been done in American political history before, actually,” he said. “Dr. Oz has never let me ever forget having a stroke. I guarantee you there’s someone here wanting to film this and to get more words that I miss.”
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“Hey, [expletive] that guy,” a supporter in the crowd yelled, causing the crowd to erupt.
“It’s quite an inspiring campaign to run on that kind of idea,” the lieutenant governor said.
Fetterman led Oz by 1.3 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics average heading into the debate. Public opinion polls reassessing the race post-debate were not available.
