Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senate candidate struggles through some sentences and dodges questions from reporters.
Its GOP Senate candidate taunts a stroke victim with jabs about his weight, continence, and mental health.
The delicate issue of Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s cognitive abilities after suffering a stroke in May has scrambled the race for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat.
Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz has escalated attacks on Fetterman in recent days over his fitness for office, particularly after Fetterman’s campaign cited his health as a reason the Democrat may not face Oz for a debate.
Rather than deny the existence of a problem, Fetterman has leaned into it.
“The only issues lingering from the stroke is just having some auditorial processing every now and then,” he told a local news station last month. “And I’ll miss a word sometimes, or I might mush two words together sometimes in a conversation. But that’s really the only issue, and it’s getting better and better.”
Fetterman’s campaign strategist said last week that the candidate’s problems with “auditory processing” in noisy rooms would affect decisions about whether and how Fetterman would participate in a debate.
Amid growing scrutiny of that approach, Fetterman told Politico on Wednesday that he does intend to debate Oz at some point in October, although he did not provide details on when or where.
FETTERMAN AGREES TO DEBATE OZ IN OCTOBER
Berwood Yost, director of the Center for Opinion Research and the Floyd Institute for Public Policy at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania, said Fetterman’s health problems have in some sense forced Fetterman into a debate appearance.
“We know that debates typically don’t make much difference, and we also know that candidates who are leading in the polls tend to want to avoid debating if they can. That’s just political strategy,” Yost told the Washington Examiner.
“I think the Fetterman campaign, if there wasn’t a health issue and given that they had some advantage, it seems like they might want to avoid the debates or avoid as many as they can,” he added. “I think the health issue has perhaps made it necessary for them to debate.”
Polls have shown Fetterman with a consistent advantage heading into September. The Democratic candidate leads Oz by an average of 6.5 points, according to RealClearPolitics.
Oz has used Fetterman’s debate refusal as an opening to hammer a health issue his campaign had already tried to elevate.
Some of his past swipes have been subtle.
His campaign marked Fetterman’s return to the race in July with a video of Oz lacing up running sneakers and welcoming Fetterman back to the campaign trail as he jogged through a forest — a picture of the health Fetterman apparently lacked.
Other swipes have been heavy-handed.
Oz’s campaign slammed Fetterman following a dust-up over Oz’s use of the high-brow word “crudite” in a grocery store, with Oz’s spokeswoman charging that “if John Fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life,” then “maybe” he would not have suffered a stroke.
“In a situation like that, you’ve got to kill the candidate with kindness,” said Brad Bannon, a Democratic strategist, of how Oz ought to approach an opponent with serious health problems.
As for Fetterman, “the best way to handle the situation is to be as open as possible” about his prognosis, Bannon told the Washington Examiner.
The issue has shown some signs of gaining traction. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran an editorial Tuesday urging Fetterman to face Oz onstage.
“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,” the editorial board said.
Fetterman has kept his schedule relatively light since announcing a return to the campaign trail this summer.
The last weekend in August was the first time he held campaign events on back-to-back days, according to ABC News.
And Fetterman has dodged reporters at campaign events across the state, including at a Labor Day parade on Monday, where he ignored shouted questions about whether he planned to debate Oz.
Kevin Madden, advocacy strategist and former adviser to both of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns, suggested Oz would be better off focusing on Fetterman’s least popular political positions rather than his health.
“Oz is behind, and he needs to be on offense against Fetterman, but in order to do that effectively, Oz needs the cleanest hit,” Madden told the Washington Examiner. “Going after Fetterman’s health can be problematic because there is a fine line between raising legitimate doubts and being cruel.”
“The campaign has crossed the line a few times, and with only two months to go, they can’t waste any more days off-message,” Madden added. “The more effective frame, one that fits the environment and gets at Fetterman’s real vulnerability, is the association with an agenda that is more radical than most suburban voters care for. It’s a clearer distinction.”
For a candidate whose appeal during the primary was bound up in his charisma and skill at retail politics, Fetterman’s slow return to the campaign trail has risks.
Voters who supported the energetic blue-collar champion in the spring may rethink their choice if Fetterman proves unable to engage in a traditional campaign.
“I think if he’s able to be out and be in front of the media and be in front of audiences and appear to be the John Fetterman that we saw during the primary, I don’t think this is an issue,” Yost said. “If he doesn’t compare to the standard he set previously, then yeah, it does run the risk of becoming an issue.”
Questions over a candidate’s health have plagued other political races in recent years.
Hillary Clinton faced conservative scrutiny in 2016 after she collapsed at a Sept. 11 memorial event. Her campaign blamed pneumonia, but the GOP continued to question her health.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Former President Donald Trump also confronted skepticism about his health given his advanced age — he was 70 when he was elected.
But cognitive health has perhaps never been as prominent an issue as in the case of President Joe Biden, whose verbal struggles have contributed to speculation that he is not fit for another term.
