Journo Who Said to Lower Expectations of John Fetterman Says He Did Way Worse Than Expected

The debate performance by Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic candidate for Senate, was “much worse” than expected, according to a journalist who said she recently spoke with him.

Charlotte Alter, a senior correspondent for Time magazine, sent a now-viral tweet critiquing Fetterman after he faced off against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, using closed captioning to help him understand questions as he is still recovering from a stroke in May and questions swirl about his overall health. He struggled at times, with awkward pauses and stumbles over his words.

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“I spoke to Fetterman recently, and I expected him to be very bad tonight. But he was much much worse than I expected (and much worse than in our one-on-one conversation.),” Alter said Tuesday night.

Earlier, the journalist posted a thread tamping down expectations for Fetterman’s performance, noting that he was never a “masterful orator” like former President Barack Obama or Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and insisting that the Democrat’s “strength has always been in his ability to talk like a normal person” versus Oz, a longtime TV celebrity.

Facing blowback for her apparent turnaround, Alter added to her post-debate tweet her “take all in one place” — that Fetterman “was already a very bad debater pre-stroke” and “I spoke to him recently, and his communication in our one-on-one conversation was much clearer than what we saw tonight.”

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Fetterman’s own team sought to temper expectations before the debate, releasing a memo to reporters that cited his “lingering auditory processing challenge,” and said, “We’ll admit — this isn’t John’s format … [i]f we’re all being honest, Oz clearly comes into Tuesday night with a huge built-in advantage.”

During the debate, Fetterman refused to commit to releasing his medical records when asked but did exclaim, “My doctor believes I am fit to be serving, and I believe that is where I am standing.” After the event, his campaign said, “We are thrilled with John’s performance. He did remarkably well tonight — especially when you consider that he’s still recovering from a stroke and was working off of delayed captions filled with errors.”