The debate delivered by John Fetterman on Tuesday evening against his Republican opponent Mehmet Oz is causing concern among Democrats.
Posted yesterday at 11:26 p.m.
In debate Tuesday evening, John Fetterman, Democratic candidate for the senate in Pennsylvania, was to face his opponent Mehmet Oz, five months after a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) which occurred on May 13.
PHOTO HANNAH BEIER, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Mehmet Oz, Republican candidate for senator from Pennsylvania
Listeners were able to see that the 53-year-old lieutenant governor was still showing signs of his accident, as he struggled to complete his sentences and find his words. Although he is recovering, medical professionals were not surprised.
Mehmet Oz’s team had mocked his opponent earlier in the campaign, claiming he was going to pay for the medical staff needed for Fetterman to take part in the debate scheduled for September.
A mistake ?
Democrats have spoken out about Fetterman’s participation in Tuesday night’s debate. Some say it was a mistake. “After the fact, he probably shouldn’t have debated,” said former Pennsylvania Governor General Ed Rendell. But the main thing is that he recovers from his stroke. »
Fetterman was expected to convince the public Tuesday evening that he is fit to take office as a senator, despite his stroke. He also declared after the debate that “something remarkable had happened”, his campaign having allowed him to collect more than 2 million dollars.
“The only way to recover from this, according to Ed Rendell, is for John to get out as much as possible, be seen, be interviewed and do whatever he can to make people see that he is ready to take his functions. »
” I got back up ”
“I knew a debate wasn’t going to be easy after I had a stroke five months ago. I don’t think this has ever been done before in American political history. I was knocked down, but I got up. I will fight for everyone [Pennsylvanie] who got knocked down and had to get back up,” John Fetterman wrote on Twitter Wednesday night.
By the way, the Democratic candidate spoke for about ten minutes in front of a crowd of 3,000 people on Wednesday evening in Pittsburgh, before a musical performance by Dave Matthews. John Fetterman is also expected to speak at a Democratic rally on Friday.
According to the average of the polls of the Five Thirty Eight site, John Fetterman is slightly ahead of the Republican Mehmet Oz, or by 2.3%.
Trump doubles down
In addition, Donald Trump announced on Wednesday no less than four meetings to support Republican candidates in the midterm elections in the last hours of the campaign.
The former Republican president, surrounded by investigations, threw himself headlong into the campaign for this election during which the Americans renew all of the 435 seats in the American House of Representatives and a third of the Senate.
But this election also acts as a life-size test for the political future of the Republican billionaire, who openly flirts with a candidacy in 2024.
Concretely, the battle for control of Congress is being played out in a handful of key states – the same ones that were already at stake in the 2020 presidential election, and which Donald Trump will visit in late October and early November.
Just hours before the opening of the polls, the ex-businessman will be in the hotly contested state of Ohio, where his foal JD Vance, is opposed to the elected Democrat Tim Ryan.
Democratic President Joe Biden alternates between meetings with the working class and meetings with wealthy sympathizers to fill the coffers of his party, which hopes to at least maintain its control over the Senate.