Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) reflected upon his own lackluster debate performance in 2022 to dismiss calls for President Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race following his poor debate performance.
Some Democrats are expressing concern about Biden being the nominee after he performed poorly in Thursday night’s presidential debate against former President Donald Trump. Fetterman pointed to his own poor debate performance when he ran for Senate in 2022 against Mehmet Oz, a race Fetterman ultimately won, as a sign that the Biden campaign can recover from the backlash.
“We had a difficult debate, and yet we still managed to go on to win. Now, everybody was calling that that was the end of my career, that was the end of this race, and everyone was predicting that I was going to lose actually by 2 points or more. And I smoked Oz by 5 points,” Fetterman said in an interview with Shannon Bream on Fox News Sunday.
“And that’s what I’m saying. It — it’s like one debate is not a career,” He continued.
When Fetterman debated Oz in 2022, it was largely seen as a poor performance by Fetterman, who had just suffered a stroke. One Democratic lawmaker told Axios at the time, “Why the hell did Fetterman agree to this?”
Some Democrats are asking similar questions as to why the Biden campaign agreed to a debate after Biden often stumbled through questions and appeared lost during the debate. Fetterman, still, dismissed those concerns from Democrats.
“That whole abandoned Biden thing — that’s the dumbest s*** I’ve ever heard,” Fetterman said. “I mean, if you are more inclined to vote for a Democrat or be a Democrat, if you’re willing to walk away from Joe Biden — you’re by defecting, helping Trump.”
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He said voters should consider the contrasts between both the Trump and Biden presidencies when making their choice in November.
“This is a very stark choice. What kind of president do you want for the next four years?” Fetterman said. “Donald Trump, who is obsessed with revenge and has been very clear he is here to be retribution. I don’t believe that the president office should ever be weaponized against the people in this America that disagree with you.”
