After Fetterman suffered a stroke days before his May primary, reporters were later told he had a pacemaker and defibrillator implanted to treat atrial fibrillation — a serious heart condition that had been diagnosed years earlier but not disclosed before he ran for lieutenant governor or Senate. In a June statement, his doctor said he also had a serious heart condition called cardiomyopathy. Since then, none of the doctors on his current medical team have provided details about the effects of his stroke, despite frequent media requests for his medical records. On Thursday, his campaign confirmed that he had taken two neurocognitive tests, one of which showed he scored 28 out of 30 — which is common for people with at least a high school education. Fetterman walks near his home in Braddock, Pa., (above) to keep fit. But his current doctors have declined to say whether the stroke he suffered in May will affect his bid for the U.S. Senate.New York Post Since returning to the campaign trail in mid-August, Fetterman has made brief appearances at a handful of events where he did not take questions from reporters or members of the public. He relied heavily on his Twitter account with nearly 800,000 followers to woo voters in his absence. At the events he attended, the halting, sometimes confused, remarks caused him concern. At his most recent event on 9/11, at a Planned Parenthood “Women for Fetterman” rally, he struggled to finish his thoughts and slurred his words as he blasted his opponent, celebrity TV doctor Mehmet Oz, for mocking health issues of. . At his first event — a rally in Erie on Aug. 12 — he stumbled, paused or lost words throughout his nine-minute speech to the discomfort of many in the audience. “I knew he had health issues, I didn’t realize how much they had affected him,” said one voter at the event, who said he was from Erie and a Democrat. A week later at a Steelers rally in Pittsburgh, Fetterman gave a four-minute speech and stumbled over his words. “What’s wrong with them demanding an easy, secure, kind of income,” he said. “A path to a safe place for them to win… Excuse me… To work?” Fetterman is campaigning in Greensburg, Pa., just days before his stroke. Since he returned to the campaign trail in August, his short – and often halting – speeches have left many questioning whether he is fit for office.AP On Labor Day, as he spoke for a little more than two minutes at a rally for the Steelworkers in West Mifflin with President Biden in attendance, he often paused or trailed off and made no policy comments. “I’m going to make it very simple for you all,” he said, in a riff that was filled with frequent stumbling and awkward pauses, and ended with him confusing New Jersey with Washington DC. “I can defend the union way of life in Jersey. Excuse me… In DC.” Fetterman with President Biden at a Labor Day event in early September. Like Biden, Fetterman often stumbles in his speeches and slurs his words. Reuters Democrats who attended that speech said they were growing concerned about Fetterman. “Some difficult, cutesy tweet that comes at Pennsylvanians over and over and over again, with little to say about substantive issues — if that’s all his brain can remember, that’s unacceptable,” one Democrat told me. “He seems to think he can ride out the storm rather than talk. Fetterman as he leaves his home in Braddock, Pa., earlier this month. Since the opponent of Dr. Oz regularly called for a debate, eventually agreeing to a single showdown on Oct. 25 — weeks after early voting will have already begun. New York Post Fetterman has yet to discuss Oz once on the campaign trail, though he said Wednesday he will face him on Oct. 25 — more than a month after the Sept. 19 deadline, when voters begin to vote by mail. On Monday, even the editorial board of the left-leaning Washington Post condemned his lack of transparency and willingness to debate early in the voting process. “Mr. Fetterman is asking voters for a six-year contract without giving them enough information to make sound judgments about whether he is ready for such a demanding job,” he said. in both parties, including Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and we believe Mr. Fetterman should release his medical records for independent review. And he should talk to Mr. Oz before voters go to the polls.” Oz’s campaign suggested Fetterman used his stroke as an excuse to avoid a debate. Fetterman hit back at the doctor for making fun of his health problems. Justin Merriman Both Fetterman and his campaign staff have said the candidate suffers from “auditory processing disorder.” The condition makes it difficult for the brain to interpret what others are saying, according to Sarah Lantz, a speech pathologist at Magee Rehabilitation. Fetterman clearly has difficulty communicating with people and needs to read questions from people in order to process them. The New York Times, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and Politico all noted that he needed closed captioning to give interviews to their reporters. His campaign confirmed that he used Google Meets, a closed-captioned video chat app, for a live TV interview this month on MSNBC. Fetterman’s team acknowledged the need for subtitles when they conducted this interview on MSNBC in early September. “I’m running a perfectly normal campaign,” Fetterman, 53, told the Times. “I’m getting better and better and living a completely normal life.” He added that he walks several miles a day and is rapidly improving his auditory processing. On Monday, Joe Calvello, a spokesman for the Fetterman campaign, admitted to me that the candidate doesn’t write all of his tweets himself. “He used to do it all himself, but as the campaign has gotten busier since the primaries, he’s got some staff tweeting. But he still tweets a lot.” When I asked Calvello for an update on his medical condition, he did not respond. Meanwhile, when Fetterman walks in parades or attends rallies, he is tightly surrounded by volunteers and staff, giving him the illusion of robust health and adoring support while, in reality, isolating him from reporters or outsiders who try to ask him questions. A crowd attends Fetterman’s event in Philadelphia on September 11, where he struggled to complete his thoughts and slurred his words.James Keivom Secrecy is consistent with the entire Fetterman campaign. His stroke only became public shortly before the May primary, when he was not seen on the trail for a few days. When pressed, the campaign admitted he had been hospitalized with a stroke caused by a blood clot from his heart as a result of atrial fibrillation. “The fact that even [Pennsylvania] Governor [Tom] “Wolf didn’t know for two or three days about John Fetterman’s statements of honesty and transparency throughout his career,” said a Harrisburg-based Democrat who served in the state capitol for years. “It’s unfortunate that John hasn’t been honest since the beginning of his medical challenge, period.” Although Fetterman currently leads Oz by almost seven percentage points, avoiding the tough questions – and his opponent – could see him falter in the final weeks of the campaign. James Cavem It’s not the first time an elected official has had to face questions about his health, said Muhlenberg College political science professor Chris Borick. “The late Gov. Bob Casey Sr., a Democrat, had a liver and heart transplant. Arlen Spector, a Republican senator, had a brain aneurysm, Hodgkin’s disease and a triple bypass — [and] both constantly deliver[ed] updates from their doctors about their health,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s important to have some clear verification of someone, both of their ability to run and their availability to the public,” he said. Right now, by avoiding tough questions, Fetterman is projecting a shifted image to the public — one that could eventually overturn his 6.5 percent lead in the polls. The Harrisburg Democrat, for example, worries about his chances of winning: “I think his physical disabilities are such that he can’t debate Oz successfully.”
