Following Tuesday night's U.S. Senate debate in Pennsylvania between Democrat Lt. Governor John Fetterman and GOP nominee Mehmet Oz, Democrats were desperately trying to spin what was an absolute disaster of a debate performance by Fetterman.
But due to Fetterman's implosion on live television up against Oz, their spin seeking to make Fetterman's performance akin to the Lincoln-Douglas debates was some of the most absurd, emperors-new-clothes nonsense that's been seen in this midterm election cycle.
First up in the coping and seething department is Bob Casey, the Democrat U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania who will be joined by Oz or Fetterman in the Keystone State's delegation after November. Seemingly not having watched a single second of the debate, the senior senator from PA said that Fetterman did "well" and his "message came through very clearly" while his "answers were very direct."
Senator Bob Casey:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 26, 2022
John Fetterman's "message came through very clearly...his answers were very direct."
On what planet? pic.twitter.com/mrfb38d68l
Perhaps Casey's fitness to serve in the U.S. Senate should also be evaluated?
On Twitter, the desperation was no less severe with libs claiming that Oz is relying on "ableism" when in fact Oz generally avoided bringing up the questioned fitness of Fetterman and instead landed substantive hits on Democrat policies and Fetterman's radical record.
when your side is so bad you have to rely on ableism to win https://t.co/3iTWIKXTPy
— Liz Plank (@feministabulous) October 26, 2022
Others made the point that Fetterman's issues weren't worthy of criticism because "time catches up with everyone." That may be true, but not everyone is seeking a six-year term in the world's greatest deliberative body.
Recommended
My God, the blue-check people here mocking John Fetterman during this debate, as if they are immune from the randomness of illness and infirmity. Time catches up with everyone, no exceptions. Few would have his courage to recover so publicly.
— Connie Schultz (@ConnieSchultz) October 26, 2022
Apparently, for Democrats terrified that they're going to lose the Senate seat in Pennsylvania, it's worth beclowning themselves in the hope that people who didn't see Fetterman's debate failures will take their word for it that he did well.
Meanwhile, reliably bad take-giver Ana Navarro decided the main debate takeaway was Fetterman's "courage, humility and honesty" — despite the fact that Fetterman claimed to have always supported fracking despite being faced with a quote of his own opposing fracking in PA.
Fetterman’s aware he has auditory & processing issues as a result of stroke.
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) October 26, 2022
He could’ve refused to debate like some candidates have. Instead, he went out there and let voters see his challenges and healing process.
Support him or not, that takes courage, humility and honesty.
Some attempted to divert from Fetterman's inability to respond to questions or explain his position on the issues by claiming Oz is a "quack," which was certainly not the takeaway for people who actually watched the debate.
Everybody tweeting about the Oz / Fetterman debate like we're talking about two similarly legitimate candidates. Is everyone insane? Fetterman has been working (successfully) in public service in Pennsylvania for a decade. Oz is a quack TV doctor!
— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) October 26, 2022
Meanwhile, over in the Fetterman campaign's spin room after the debate, their frustration was evident in their use of, ahem, colorful language to claim that Fetterman "took it to Dr. Oz pretty f**king hard tonight."
The spin got a little heated at times.
— Oliver Morrison (@ORMorrison) October 26, 2022
For those who don’t like curse words in their feeds skip this video. pic.twitter.com/ccAwjJdEPl
That profane sentiment was continued by Fetterman's communications director on Twitter whose desperation was palpable.
Tonight, John Fetterman showed that he is going to fight for everyone in PA who has gotten knocked down and had to get back up.
— Joe Calvello (@the_vello) October 26, 2022
John fucking took it to sleazy Dr. Oz tonight.
And the people of PA saw that. #PASenateDebate
In a separate statement, Fetterman's communications director claimed the campaign was "thrilled with John's performance" and claimed their candidate "did remarkably well tonight" while he "won countless exchanges, counter-punched aggressively, and pushed back on Oz's cruelty and attacks."
It's unclear which debate the Fetterman campaign was watching, but it couldn't have been the one the rest of us — and Pennsylvania voters — saw Tuesday night.
Fetterman's campaign acknowledged that "John may not have pronounced every word correctly," and sought to push blame onto the captioning system they demanded, saying he was "working off of delayed captions filled with errors." But, as Townhall outlined here, there were few answers in which Fetterman didn't botch a word or statement — making issues with a caption system that Fetterman required and rehearsed with a feeble excuse.
Not all Democrats or mainstream journalists fully committed to the laughable, literally unbelievable "Fetterman won" narrative, however. There were a select few who were willing to admit that Fetterman botched his first and (probably thankfully) only debate against Oz.
Democrats are asking the same thing post-debate: Why did Fetterman's team allow him to take the stage tonight? No one I'm talking to on the left has a good thing to say about what just took place.
— Al Weaver (@alweaver22) October 26, 2022
John Fetterman’s ability to communicate is seriously impaired. Pennsylvania voters will be talking about this obvious fact even if many in the media will not.
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) October 26, 2022
I spoke to Fetterman recently, and I expected him to be very bad tonight. But he was much much worse than I expected (and much worse than in our one-on-one conversation.)
— Charlotte Alter (@CharlotteAlter) October 26, 2022
this was a tough moment for Fetterman pic.twitter.com/sx5WoRVFb7
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 26, 2022
Join the conversation as a VIP Member