PITTSBURGH — In what may serve as his most straightforward attempt yet to combat claims that he’s hiding from voters, John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, told Politico on Wednesday that he’ll “absolutely” debate Republican Mehmet Oz.
Fetterman, who is continuing to recover from a stroke he suffered in May, told the outlet in an exclusive interview that he’s committing to one debate with Oz — on a major TV station “sometime in the middle to end of October” — and is still discussing accommodations for his auditory processing problems.
That could include a closed captioning monitor, he said, so he doesn’t miss any words. In an interview with the Post-Gazette in July, he said he struggles with his hearing sometimes and may “miss a word” or “slur two together,” but he said it doesn’t happen often and that he was working with a speech therapist.
“We’re absolutely going to debate Dr. Oz, and that was really always our intent to do that,” Fetterman told Politico. “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.”
In response to the new comments, an Oz campaign spokeswoman specifically pointed to the line in the Politico article that said Fetterman declined to specify which debate he’d attend or provide an exact date.
"BIG NEWS! John Fetterman has agreed to debate at a SECRET DEBATE. We don't know WHERE. We don't know WHEN. We don't know HOW. It's a big SECRET!" spokeswoman Brittany Yanick said in a statement released by the campaign.
The Oz campaign had challenged Fetterman to a series of five debates, moderated by professional journalism outlets, in the lead-up to the November election. A spokesman told the Post-Gazette last month that the campaign thought it was fair to question if Fetterman is “too sick to debate.”
Fetterman has said he’s “feeling really good,” said he has “nothing to hide” on the status of his health, and described the lingering effects of his stroke as minor and infrequent. Doctors attached a pacemaker with a defibrillator to Fetterman’s heart after the stroke, intended to treat his cardiomyopathy, a diagnosis he received after his stroke.
He’s returned to the campaign trail for a handful of public events, including an appearance at Pittsburgh’s Labor Day parade this week.
But to this point, he hadn’t made a firm commitment to debating. His campaign had deemed Oz’s demands a desperate stunt and an attempt to change the subject in an otherwise bad stretch for the campaign. A spokesman said last month that Fetterman “is up for debating Oz,” just not on the Republican’s terms.
Oz has sought to capitalize on this, taking his argument to Fox News that Fetterman is either afraid to speak in defense of his policy proposals or not as healthy as he says. On Tuesday, he brought out one of the Pennsylvania GOP’s big guns — Sen. Pat Toomey, the current seat-holder — to support his skepticism.
“I wish him all the best in his recovery, but if he won’t debate Dr. Oz because he can’t debate, then he should just say so,” Toomey said at a press conference in Philadelphia. “... He said the only lingering effect of the stroke is, and I quote, ‘Every now and then, I’m going to miss a word or mush two together.’ Well, if that’s all true, then why won’t he agree to debate Dr. Oz?”
In the interview with Politico, Fetterman addressed Toomey’s comments directly, accusing him of not being transparent in his own dealings with Pennsylvania and saying there’s “no dignity” in his remarks.
“Here’s a man who is a coward, and he quit the Senate because he understands he can’t get re-elected,” Fetterman told the outlet. “This is a man that has no town meetings or really has any kind of interaction with constituents ever.”
Fetterman, according to Politico, insisted that his plan was always to debate Oz, and repeated his campaign’s argument that the debate attacks were a “faux narrative from a very desperate campaign.” Oz is “taking a very, very big bet on mocking somebody that’s dealing with a major health challenge,” Fetterman added.
Politico disclosed that their interview with Fetterman was conducted over Google Meet, a video chat app, for about 17 minutes using closed captioning. He had also used closed captioning in his interview with the Post-Gazette in July, his first since suffering the stroke.
In reference to using closed captioning at a debate, Fetterman told Politico, “We’re just exploring that.”
“I have every ability to talk about all of these issues and have a full debate,” he said. “And that’s really just the one lingering issue of the stroke — that some of my hearing was damaged a little bit, but it’s continuing to get better and better and better every day.”
The Oz campaign had — perhaps tongue in cheek — said in recent weeks that they’d be willing to make compromises with Fetterman if he needed modifications to better suit his health for the debates. That included allowing Fetterman to “have all of his notes in front of him along with an earpiece so he can have the answers given to him by his staff, in real time.”
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