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Fetterman Agrees to Debate Dr. Oz, But There's a Catch

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  September 09, 2022 9:05 AM

Will John Fetterman debate Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania? The US Senate race in Pennsylvania was devolving into an absolute dumpster fire—and it could still go off the hinges—but things are starting to look more favorable for Oz in a state that’s been a cruel mistress to Republicans for over a quarter century. Some of it has to do with Fetterman’s positions getting more airtime, which includes ending life sentences for first-degree murderers, emptying one-third of Pennsylvania’s prisons, and an embarrassing incident where he chased down an unarmed black man with a shotgun. He’s also recovering from a stroke and had a pacemaker implanted around the time of the Democratic primary. He’s not healthy, and his stump speeches have been beset with sentence fragments and half-thoughts that make Joe Biden seem like a seasoned elocutionist. This is why the Fetterman campaign has been reticent to agree on any debate terms from the Oz camp.

There must be at least one debate in a crucial Senate race like this that could decide who will be in the majority this cycle. Fetterman’s past tweets suggest he has his standard of three debates for those running for elected office. The Fetterman camp couldn’t avoid this question forever, which is why they agreed to debate Oz, but there’s a catch (via Politico):

John Fetterman said he is committing to attending one debate with his Republican opponent, Mehmet Oz, in the closely watched battle for the Senate in Pennsylvania, but his campaign is still discussing accommodations for his auditory processing problems.

The announcement comes as Oz has ramped up pressure on Fetterman, who suffered a stroke in May, to agree to a series of debates beginning in early September.

“We’re absolutely going to debate Dr. Oz, and that was really always our intent to do that,” Fetterman told POLITICO in an exclusive interview. “It was just simply only ever been about addressing some of the lingering issues of the stroke, the auditory processing, and we’re going to be able to work that out.”

Fetterman declined to specify which debate he will attend or provide an exact date for it, though he said it will “be sometime in the middle to end of October” on a “major television station” in the state.

He also said that the campaign is looking at the possibility of using a closed captioning monitor for the event so that he does not miss any words as he continues to recover from his stroke.

Sometime in mid-October isn’t a concrete deadline, and it’s probably a pivot by Fetterman’s crew to cast the media off the debate scent for a bit, but it’s not going to dissipate. What happens when we approach Halloween? Will Fetterman’s camp get on the stage, or will a medical emergency arise that postpones the showdown? That postponement could quickly morph into a cancellation. There’s more riding on this debate for Fetterman than Oz. Oz can speak in complete sentences and shut down talking points much more manageable than Fetterman, who suffers from serial mental short-circuiting; that is not his fault.

Fetterman can barely get through smaller campaign events in friendly territory without tossing out a healthy helping of word salad. Do you think he could last two hours with Oz on a debate stage defending his radical policies, especially those on law and order, without it becoming a trainwreck? I don’t think his staunchest supporters believe he can manage that.