Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman said Wednesday he would debate his Republican opponent — without saying when or where — and that he would seek an accommodation for speech and hearing difficulties he continues to experience after suffering a stroke in May.
(Bloomberg) — Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman said Wednesday he would debate his Republican opponent — without saying when or where — and that he would seek an accommodation for speech and hearing difficulties he continues to experience after suffering a stroke in May.
But Fetterman’s statement in an interview with Politico was unlikely to end weeks of cajoling from Republican Mehmet Oz, a celebrity physician who has made ever more pointed attacks on Fetterman’s fitness for office.
“Let’s be clear — Dr. Oz’s campaign won’t agree to a secret debate. It has to be a real one with real journalists asking real questions,” said Oz spokeswoman Brittany Yanick. “Imaginary debates don’t count!”
Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, declined an invitation to a televised debate in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. He said Wednesday he would debate “sometime in the middle to end of October” on a “major television station” in the state.
“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.”
Oz and Fetterman are running to replace Republican Senator Pat Toomey, who is retiring. The outcome of the race could decide which party controls the Senate.
“There is literally zero precedent in modern times for having U.S. Senate debates in Pennsylvania in early September,” Fetterman said in a statement Wednesday. “This whole thing has been about Dr. Oz and his team mocking me for having a stroke because they’ve got nothing else.”
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