John Fetterman has finally agreed to a debate with Dr. Mehmet Oz.
The debate is scheduled for October 25th.
Fetterman is running against Oz in the 2022 US Senate race in Pennsylvania.
The Democrat candidate has dodged Oz’s requests for a debate since suffering a stroke and blood clot in May.
Fetterman has finally agreed to the *one* debate on October 25th.
The 60-minute debate will take place in Harrisburg well after early voting starts.
Fetterman has also requested certain conditions.
Fetterman’s campaign asked for “live, real-time closed captioning that will appear on monitors visible to the candidates and throughout the duration of the debate.”
We already accommodated the closed captioning request for John. That’s going to slow everything down. I don’t see why this is an unreasonable request, so voters can hear us debate rather than waiting for people to type closed captions. https://t.co/V5P1aq2Lbk
— Dr. Mehmet Oz (@DrOz) September 14, 2022
Dr. Oz’s campaign asked that the debate moderator “explain that Fetterman is using closed captioning and to extend the debate from 60 minutes to 90 minutes to accommodate any delays.” The Washington Post reported.
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Senate, said Wednesday he would participate in one debate with Republican Mehmet Oz, who had made an issue of his opponent’s willingness to face him because Fetterman continues to recover from a serious stroke. The face-to-face meeting is scheduled for Oct. 25.
“We said from the start that we’d do a debate, which John reiterated very clearly again last week,” Rebecca Katz, senior adviser to the Fetterman campaign, said in a statement. “Enough distractions, it’s time to talk about the issues.”
But the campaigns are already sparring over terms of the debate, which would come two weeks before the general election, after Fetterman’s campaign asked for certain conditions to accommodate his continued recovery.
Oz has made Fetterman’s willingness to debate a central attack over the last several weeks, accusing the Democrat of either lying about the severity of his health or of being afraid to debate.
Fetterman suffered a near-fatal stroke days before the May primary, sidelining him from the campaign trail for most of the summer. He has eased back into some in-person activities, but has acknowledged that some of his communication processing is still shaky and has resisted any in-person media interviews.
Fetterman’s spokesman, Joe Calvello, said to “facilitate a seamless conversation,” Nexstar Television, which is hosting the debate in Harrisburg, has “agreed to provide live, real-time closed captioning that will appear on monitors visible to the candidates and throughout the duration of the debate.”
The Oz campaign responded later that the Republican would agree to the debate, but asked for specific conditions, including that the debate moderator explain that Fetterman is using closed captioning and to extend the debate from 60 minutes to 90 minutes to accommodate any delays.
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