JOHN FETTERMAN IS NOT “FINE”
“Hi! Goodnight, everybody!”
How can I say this politely, and without being accused of “ableism?” That Pennsylvania Senate debate was a disaster.
John Fetterman, who suffered a debilitating stroke in May, has not regained ample brain function in the areas of reading and speaking. He’s the Democratic candidate for US senator in Pennsylvania. The entire job he’s applying for consists of reading and speaking.
Pre-debate, the Fetterman campaign released a statement bracing the public for the mortifying spectacle that was to come in Philadelphia. The Lieutenant Governor attempted coherent conversation with Dr. Mehmet Oz: a cardiac surgeon, television personality, and now the GOP candidate.
Fetterman failed miserably, utterly.
The Oz campaign agreed to allow real-time closed captioning for the debate, in which every question would be transcribed to assist the disabled Democrat. Still, the result was pitiful. Fetterman repeated himself unknowingly, required long pauses between simple thoughts, and rambled on and on about how he’s totally mentally fit to serve—but no, he won’t be releasing his medical records.
Would an elected Fetterman require everything said on the Senate floor to be transliterated?
The man needs serious rehabilitation—there is no longer any doubt about that. Speaking of doubt, those who gaslighted NBC’s Dasha Burns last week should be redacting their thrashing insults toward her journalistic performance. Burns actually did her job reporting honestly on Fetterman’s feeble auditory processing conditions. She deserves apologies from all her “colleagues.”
Regardless of political party, any lucid person who watched the debate agrees that Fetterman is struggling with basic involuntary tasks. I never thought I’d see the day MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough publicly agrees with Ben Shapiro of The Daily Wire.
As a very recently former-Pennsylvanian, I’ll loudly admit Dr. Mehmet Oz is not the best candidate. He’s barely from the state. He’s a flip-flopper on major Keystone State issues like fracking, and he’s totally squishy on abortion.
I’ll more quietly admit that a Democrat with full auditory processing capabilities could have wiped the floor with Oz Tuesday. If Fetterman had backed out of the race at any point within the past five months, he’d be much closer to “hero” status for his party.
But whether it’s his wife Gisele, his campaign manager, or he himself, someone very close to John Fetterman is so hungry for power that he or she will not make the mature, sane, and science-backed decision to cancel the Fetterman campaign.
And whether lunacy or corruption is behind this puppet master’s efforts, the decision to prolong the pitiful campaign is one being egged on by the media’s most stubborn members.
Take Sunny Hostin of The View, for instance.
“It takes real courage to show that you’ve been knocked down,” she told her fellow low-info Democrats Wednesday morning. “It takes real bravery to allow people to see your weakness.”
A Senate race isn’t like an audition for American Idol, Sunny. Pennsylvanians are hiring the man who will be voting on major national issues. Job competency is kind of a big deal.
Then came the woke celebrity leftists crying “ableism” when anyone negatively mentioned Fetterman’s condition.
When it comes to voting on bills affecting 330 million people, Sunny and the blue checkmarks would prefer a man who cannot function at a first-grade level to a man who is competent but will align with Republicans.
I’d tell you it shocked me, but I’d be lying. After all, I’ve witnessed the 2020 election and now 21 dystopian months of Dementia Joe.
But here’s the thing. Democrats never hesitate to call conservatives disabled. Which begs the question: Are they ignorant to reality, or are they purely dishonest?
The Fake News cried “Invoke the 25th!” throughout the Trump administration. He was obese, in decline, “unfit for office.” I mean, he tweeted out the word “Covfefe!” Something must have been neurologically wrong!
And when he wasn’t an evil mastermind plotting to destroy democracy, he had Parkinson’s.
But when John Fetterman can’t form a sentence, it’s “heartbreaking.” He’s “authentic.” Gutsy and committed.
This election cycle, the pundits are expending a lot of hot air in Georgia going after Republican candidate Herschel Walker. According to The New York Times, “Herschel Walker is an absolute butcher of the English language” and “devastatingly inarticulate.”
Can you imagine if a FOX News reporter attached the word “inarticulate” to Raphael Warnock? It would be career-ending.
Back up north, media outlets are tripping over themselves to assure us Fetterman is totally fine.
The Boston Globe cited Tufts Medical Center’s chief neurologist to declare that there are “probably not” limits to his capacity or judgment. And also that he’s “brave,” so we know exactly what side this doctor’s on.
Slate consulted the University of Cincinnati’s chief of rehabilitation medicine. Turns out engaging in a debate with Mehmet Oz is one of the best forms of rehab!
Kevin Sheth of the Yale Center for Brain & Mind Health concedes that being a United States Senator may be stressful, and that could hinder recovery. But Sheth believes the massive discrepancy in speaking abilities you saw on the stage Tuesday probably has to do with the fact that Oz is a “TV veteran.”
Seriously? Pennsylvanians aren’t fools. “Fetterman is fine” is this election cycle’s least believable media hoax. It’s not discriminatory to point out that the man is very clearly suffering. And it’s not an “ableist” to demand a Senator who is competent at a third-grade English level.
