Fetterman Debate Disaster Demonstrates How Far Media Will Go to Keep Dems in Power

The highly anticipated Tuesday night debate between Democrat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz can best be summarized by the apt catchphrase of Janice from the hit sitcom “Friends”: “Oh. My. God.”

What was already expected to be a difficult performance for Fetterman — who suffered a stroke earlier this year — turned out to be cataclysmically worse than anyone could have ever imagined. Despite having closed captioning assisting him in comprehending the questions from the debate moderator, the Democrat Senate candidate was unable to string together coherent, thoughtful responses throughout the whole debate.

In one exchange with the moderator when Fetterman was asked to address his previously stated support of banning fracking, the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor audibly froze for an extended amount of time before managing to blurt out, “I do support fracking and I don’t, I don’t, I support fracking and I stand, and I do support fracking.”

Another similar instance occurred when he was pressed about his refusal to release his medical records. Fetterman declined to address the moderator’s direct question and instead claimed, “My doctor believes I am fit to be serving and that’s what I believe is where I am standing.”

These verbal fumbles continued throughout the entire debate.

While Fetterman’s stroke and accompanying health problems are sad, what’s truly appalling is the lengths to which America’s corrupt corporate media have gone in covering up the Pennsylvania Democrat’s inability to serve in public office. Over the course of the 2022 election cycle, legacy media talking heads have gone from pretending Fetterman never had any health issues, to attacking anyone who raised concerns about his health, to now pretending Fetterman’s debate performance was the greatest thing since Lizzo twerked on stage while slobbering all over James Madison’s crystal flute.

In a Tuesday opinion column published in The Philidelphia Inquirer, some of the paper’s writers and contributors attempted to hype Fetterman’s extremely underwhelming debate performance, while giving Oz a lower average debate score than Fetterman.

“He had zingers, saying that Oz has never met an oil company that he doesn’t ‘swipe right’ on,” wrote Commentary and Ideas Editor Devi Lockwood, who gave Fetterman a score of 7/10 and Oz a 1/10. “Hearing Fetterman say that Roe v. Wade should be the law led me to audibly sigh in relief. Abortion should be a choice between a pregnant person [emphasis added] and their doctor.”

Opinion Editor-at-Large Paul Davies echoed similar remarks and gave Fetterman a score of 5/10, saying that despite his “speech challenges,” Fetterman “understands the struggles of working families and seniors, and especially believes that women — not the government — should be free to make their own choices surrounding their own bodies.”

Davies separately gave Oz a 0/10, claiming the Republican candidate “disqualified himself from holding public office” the “second” he “said that he would support the return of the twice-impeached former president [Donald Trump] who incited a deadly insurrection and tried to overturn a free and fair election.”

And of course, what Democrat-legacy media lovefest would be complete without input from Twitter’s blue-check brigade? In a Wednesday morning tweet, Daily Beast Senior Columnist Matt Lewis offered what he called a “[c]ontrarian take” on the Fetterman-Oz debate, saying that while he “wouldn’t vote Fetterman for philosophical reasons,” if he “were leaning toward him, last night would make me root for him even more.”

Lewis was not alone in covering for Fetterman’s disastrous performance.

Corporate media’s practice of obfuscating the faltering health of Democrat politicians is nothing new. Look no further than their continued dismissal of President Joe Biden’s current mental state. Over the course of his presidency, Biden has made countless verbal missteps and experienced numerous memory lapses, with America’s commander-in-chief even seemingly falling asleep during a recent interview on MSNBC.

But to the country’s left-wing propaganda press, none of it matters. Whether it’s Fetterman or Biden, leftists masquerading as journalists couldn’t care less if Democrat political figures are physically or mentally capable of representing their constituents and serving the needs of Americans. All they care about is maintaining government power for their political party. And if that means propping up individuals clearly not medically qualified for the job, then so be it.

Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood