Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate John Fetterman suffered a stroke in May.
He learned the stroke was caused by a clot from his “heart being in an A-fib rhythm for too long.”
Fetterman said that despite the stroke, he will remain in the Senate race.
Fetterman's health has been a pivotal topic on the campaign leading into the November election.
Fetterman's Senate campaign said his stroke recovery will determine the conditions under which he would agree to a debate against Republican opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz.
“Fetterman’s campaign maintains that he is in good health and has no problems engaging in one-on-one conversations but that a ‘chaotic auditory environment’ may pose a problem,” the Washington Examiner previously reported.
Fetterman Says Stroke Will Determine If He Can Debate or Not
This posed a critical question for Fetterman.
If he’s not medically fit to handle a ‘chaotic auditory environment’ for a debate, what makes him medically fit to govern?
How can Pennsylvania voters trust that Fetterman can handle the duties of being an elected representative if he can’t even step on the debate stage?
“We are working to figure out what a fair debate would look like with the lingering impacts of the auditory processing in mind,” Fetterman campaign strategist Rebecca Katz told the Washington Post.
“To be absolutely clear, the occasional issues he is having with auditory processing have no bearing on his ability to do the job as senator. John is healthy and fully capable of showing up and doing the work.”
Fetterman eventually agreed to one debate with Oz, but under certain conditions.
Fetterman Agrees to One Debate with Oz – Under These Conditions
The debate is scheduled for 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
Now, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is calling out Fetterman for not releasing his medical records and putting the issue to rest before the election.
"Of all the issues defining the U.S. Senate race between Republican Mehmet Oz and Democrat John Fetterman, Mr. Fetterman’s health should rank close to last. Even so, it has loomed large in an increasingly tight contest for a potentially pivotal U.S. Senate seat. Mr. Fetterman can diminish the influence of this distracting side-issue by releasing his medical records now and allowing reporters to question his physician," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial Board wrote.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette: John Fetterman hurting himself by not releasing recordshttps://t.co/xcDWe0e22L
— Dr. Mehmet Oz (@DrOz) October 9, 2022
Even the liberal Pittsburgh Post Gazette concedes that Fetterman’s inability to debate raises legitimate fitness concerns. pic.twitter.com/8cYtqWGkuR
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) September 6, 2022
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial: "If Mr. Fetterman is not well enough to debate his opponent, that raises serious concerns about his ability to serve as a United States senator."https://t.co/7SYFkNcXVv
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) September 6, 2022
Cont. from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
In September, a Post-Gazette editorial called on both U.S. Senate nominees to release their medical records. Mr. Oz, 62, released his two days later, indicating he was in good health. Mr. Fetterman, 53, who suffered a life-threatening stroke in May, has not released his.
As a matter of transparency, all candidates for a major political office should release their medical records, disclosing conditions that might affect their ability to serve. Medical records are not a perfect indicator of health, but they are more reliable than biased and self-serving assessments by the candidates themselves.
That said, medical records are not a reason to vote for a candidate. Other, far more important considerations, including character and positions on key issues, should determine which candidate a voter supports. Nor are medical records any guarantee of how healthy a person will be two years from now.
By not releasing his medical records, however, Mr. Fetterman is elevating their importance and generating suspicions that may be entirely unwarranted. Mr. Fetterman’s failure to release his medical records has allowed Mr. Oz to make Mr. Fetterman’s health a major campaign issue.
Mr. Fetterman also is showing a fundamental lack of faith in people’s ability to put health into perspectives and fairly decide his overall fitness for office.
Mr. Fetterman has deflected calls by Mr. Oz to release his medical records by arguing that Mr. Oz’s positions and policies are more important than his heath records. Well, of course they are. And the best way Mr. Fetterman can ensure that voters don’t get distracted from important policy questions is by releasing his medical records.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, according to Wikipedia.
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