The questions about John Fetterman’s health have swirled since he suffered a stroke in May. Now, Fetterman is effectively admitting that he is not fit to be a senator.
Fetterman has ducked out on a debate with Republican opponent Mehmet Oz for the first week of September, accusing Oz of being too mean to him. Fetterman claims he needs to focus more on recovering from his stroke.
Of course, Fetterman has had no problem trolling Oz during his campaign over social media, including mocking Oz for talking about the price increase Pennsylvanians are facing at the grocery store. But apparently, he can’t handle being treated in kind.
So fascinated that the campaign that paid Snooki to make fun of their opponents is really going with “we won’t debate because they’re mean to us” defense.
So much for the tough guy brand. https://t.co/wtY2nG71VO
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 31, 2022
But a stroke is a serious and potentially debilitating event. Fetterman certainly should be focusing on his recovery. Instead, he chose to chase political power by keeping up his Senate run after the stroke, first toppling Conor Lamb in the Democratic primary and then continuing to run against Oz without making any public appearances for three months. Now, he intends to avoid debating, and no debates are on the horizon.
Oz has committed to five debates. Fetterman has not signed on to any of them, including one that would take place in October. Debating Oz should be easy — he is not a particularly inspiring or even good candidate. But Fetterman isn’t up to it for the same reasons he isn’t up to being a senator.
The Senate is a full-time commitment, not a brief intrusion on your afternoon. If Fetterman is not healthy enough to debate, he is not healthy enough to serve a six-year term.
Fetterman doesn’t want to debate because he doesn’t want to damage his polling lead, which has gradually dropped from 12 points when he made his first public appearance just over two weeks ago to 8 points now, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Yes, President Joe Biden showed in 2020 that candidates really could just hide from the voters. But look at how poorly that has turned out.
