Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Lt. Gov. John Fetterman released a statement Tuesday night acknowledging he’s continuing to suffer health impacts from his stroke last May, and he suggested he’s not yet healthy enough to debate.

“I’ve been traveling the commonwealth talking to voters about my vision and ideas for nearly a decade,” Fetterman wrote. “I’m proud of my record as mayor and as Lieutenant Governor and I’m eager to put my record and my values up against Dr. Oz’s any day of the week.

“As I recover from this stroke and improve my auditory processing and speech, I look forward to continuing to meet with the people of Pennsylvania.”

Fetterman’s comments were a response to a statement released by his GOP opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, mocking the Democrat for declining to commit to any debates. Among the concessions the Oz campaign facetiously suggested it is willing to make for Fetterman:

• “We will allow John 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.”

• “We will pay for any additional medical personnel he might need to have on standby.”

“The first debate at KDKA is set for one week from today…but there’s been no response from lying liberal Fetterman,” said Brittany Yanick, Communications Director for Dr. Oz for Senate. “I mean, if I had to defend releasing convicted murderers and not paying my taxes 67 times, I’d be pretty worried too. I guess John Fetterman is afraid of debating Doctor Oz.”

Fetterman suggested he’s declining a debate invitation to work on his recovery.

“My recovery may be a joke to Dr. Oz and his team, but it’s real for me. I will not be participating in a debate the first week of September, but look forward to having a productive discussion about how we can move forward and have a real conversation on this once Dr. Oz and his team are ready to take this seriously.”

Fetterman’s health continues to be a contentious topic on the campaign trail and a sensitive one for the Lt. Governor. The conservative news site the Washington Free Beacon posted a video of Fetterman being asked at a campaign event if he’s afraid to debate Oz. Fetterman appears disoriented and is quickly hustled away by a staff member.

While Fetterman has had a double-digit lead in the polls for most of the summer, the two most recent polls — Susquehanna and Emerson — show Oz gaining, down by just four or five points.

Michael Graham is Managing Editor of InsideSources.com.

This article was republished with permission from the Delaware Valley Journal.

6 thoughts on “Fetterman acknowledges health challenges linger, declines debate with Oz”

  1. Yea nah. If you cannot debate, maybe you should sit this one election run out. America does not need anymore politicians unable to communicate well, stroke or not. Don’t let the ego get in the way of the right thing to do. Sorry to be so harsh, but its truth.

    1. So…. how do you feel about the Republican Party officially withdrawing from the US commission on presidential debates? I guess Republicans should sit out the next presidential election. Sorry to be harsh.

  2. Biden/Fetterman are corrupt, senile, criminal Politicians.

    The Biden/Fetterman Team will be on full display in front of Independence Hall on Thursday.

    Biden never fully recovered from Brain Surgery and He still got elected.

    The Oligarchs thrive on Fascism and it’s here in Living Color.

    Civil War is the only path for the Dems in order to retain power.

    1. Yes, the Biden speech last night was one for the record books… The “DEVIL” was giving the details. Oops…..I mean was “IN” the details.
      After last night, it would appear that Civil War is just a matter of time.

      1. Well not everyone can be as brilliant an orator as Trump. But yeah, getting a word wrong = call for civil war. Here’s my favorite totally clear, completely coherent and very inspiration quote from dear leader Trump who is definitely a “very stable genius” lol:

        “Look, having nuclear — my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart — you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world — it’s true! — but when you’re a conservative Republican they try — oh, do they do a number — that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune — you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged — but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me — it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are — nuclear is so powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right, who would have thought? — but when you look at what’s going on with the four prisoners — now it used to be three, now it’s four — but when it was three and even now, I would have said it’s all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don’t, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years — but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us, this is horrible.”

  3. Maybe Fetterman should find a doctor he can rough up and intimidate for a note like Trump did with the note he claimed his doctor Harold Bornstein wrote for him. A note that Bornstein himself said was dictated to him directly by Trump.

    In December 2015 in response to questions about his health, Trump asked Bornstein to issue a “full medical report”, predicting that it would show “perfection”. Two days later Bornstein signed a letter full of superlatives, saying that Trump’s “laboratory results are astonishingly excellent” and that Trump “will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” In August 2016, Bornstein stated that he had written the letter in five minutes while Trump’s limousine waited for it. But he reiterated that Trump’s “health is excellent, especially his mental health.”

    In May 2018 Bornstein said that, in fact, Trump had dictated the letter over the telephone, then sent a car to pick it up. Bornstein said that “Mr. Trump dictated the letter and I would tell him what he couldn’t put in there…”

    On May 1, 2018, Bornstein told NBC News that three Trump representatives had “raided” his office on February 3, 2017, taking all of Trump’s medical records. He identified two of the men as Trump’s longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller and the Trump Organization’s chief legal officer Alan Garten. Two days earlier, Bornstein had told a reporter that Trump took a prescription hair growth medicine, Propecia, after which Trump cut ties with him.

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