After Tuesday night's first and only U.S. Senate debate in Pennsylvania between Dr. Mehmet Oz and Lt. Governor John Fetterman, the Democrat's campaign tried furiously to spin what was pretty universally declared to be a disaster of a debate in multiple profane statements.
Declaring that they were "thrilled" with Fetterman's performance, the campaign said their candidate "did remarkably well tonight — especially when you consider that he's still recovering from a stroke and was working off of delayed captions filled with errors."
To be clear, the captioning system that Fetterman's campaign complained about and sought to blame for the issues that were on full display Tuesday night, was demanded by Fetterman as a condition to finally debate Oz.
What's more, Fetterman demanded practice debate sessions to get used to the system before the cameras were turned on, but apparently that still wasn't enough for Fetterman to be prepared to square off against Oz.
Now, the debate host — Nexstar Media Group — is rebuking the Fetterman campaign's blame game.
In a statement, Nexstar's Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer Gary Weitman explained that "both candidates agreed to the technical set-up for the closed captioning process weeks ago, which was implemented at the request of the Fetterman campaign."
"Both candidates were offered the opportunity for two full rehearsals with the same equipment used in tonight's debate;" the Nexstar statement continues before noting that "Mr. Fetterman chose to do only one. In fact," the debate host adds, "Nexstar's production team went to extraordinary lengths to ensure the effectiveness of the closed captioning process, and to accommodate several last-minute requests of the Fetterman campaign."
Statement from our parent company, @NXSTMediaGroup, in response to the @JohnFetterman campaign claiming he was “working off of delayed captions filled with errors” during last night’s Pennsylvania Senate debate on @NewsNation pic.twitter.com/PUT5ELfQ0C
— Robert Sherman (@RobertShermanTV) October 26, 2022
"The closed captioning process functioned as expected during rehearsal and again during tonight's debate," the statement concludes. "We regret that Mr. Fetterman and his campaign feel otherwise."
Fetterman's decision to blame the equipment and system he demanded — and with which he did not take advantage of the full preparation made available to him — is just more spin trying to find a reason that might stick to explain why Fetterman not only failed to answer many questions clearly, but also botched his overall answers to key issues for Pennsylvania voters.