John Fetterman has dominated the race for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania.
Thanks to his relatability, his great policies, honesty and
he understands fantastic memes, not a lot of politicians can do that.
Now, meanwhile, his opponent, Mehmet Oz has decided that he is flailing.
It's probably embarrassing for him, so he has resorted to punching below
the belt by making fun of Fetterman's health condition.
He suffered a stroke, I don't know why Oz thinks it's a good idea to poke fun at
that, but he has continued doing so.
So he has challenged Fetterman to a debate.
But in doing so, he put out a list of concessions
that are condescending to say the least.
So here are the concessions by Dr. Oz.
Dr. Oz promises not to intentionally hurt John's feelings at any point.
[LAUGH] We will allow John to have all of his notes in front of him along with
an ear piece so he can have the answers given to him by his staff in real time.
Says the man who didn't know the correct grocery store
name in his crudity video, okay.
At any point, John Fetterman can raise his hand and say bathroom break.
If the topic of his pardoned murderers comes up, we will allow extra time for
him to explain that second degree murder is not as bad as first degree murder.
And and then here's the last part where I'm referring to punching below the belt.
We will pay for
any additional medical personnel he might need to have on standby.
So as you guys can imagine when that condescending list of concessions
is sent to someone like Fetterman,
he's not gonna be as willing to take up the offer for a debate.
You know what I'm saying?
Because doesn't seem like the person is reaching out in good faith.
>> Yeah, I think continuing the mocking him for
having a stroke is unacceptable.
It's not as bad as many things that have happened in American politics over
the past few years.
Even just in terms of messaging, it's a really disgusting time.
But it should be below anyone, certainly below a guy who styled himself like
a celebrity someone people are supposed to respect.
And especially someone at least tangentially involved in medicine,
sort of, it should be below him.
So that should be unacceptable.
Aside from that, I don't like any other stuff but I think the other stuff is fine.
[CROSSTALK] It's not good, I don't like it, it's horrible.
>> No, no, you said you are fine with it.
>> But if Fetterman said that stuff about him, I'd probably chuckle.
So I guess I have to be fair.
>> What do you have against Fetterman?
I thought you liked him.
>> I feel like I'm probably smearing Fetterman is what I'm probably doing.
No, but you get to make fun of your opponent.
I make fun of lots of people, I've already done it in this segment,
I'm gonna continue to do it, you can't stop me, it's in my contract.
If you try to stop me, I can raise my hand and say bathroom break.
But anyway, I think that the stroke stuff is awful, reflects poorly on him.
And it's funny that he's continuing considering, as you will point out,
he's sort of trying to backtrack on that, but not really.
The other stuff though, is making fun of his opponent.
It's 2022, that's where I'm worried about political assassinations,
that making fun of it is a little bit below my radar generally.
>> I know, but that also is a pretty sad statement about the state of politics in
America where like, this is just this patty cakes.
>> It's mocking, you can mock.
>> No, I get it and I ultimately agree with you.
I mostly just wanna focus on making fun of a man who has a health condition that
a lot of Americans have suffered from.
So, I actually don't care about whether it's moral to do it, who cares about that?
It's just so stupid.
>> You think, yeah.
>> But he doesn't get how stupid he is.
He doesn't get that he's trying to win over people who very likely
are either worried about suffering a stroke in the near future or
have already suffered a stroke.
Nonetheless, here's how Fetterman campaign responded to that list of concessions.
John Fetterman rejected Mehmet Oz's offered to hold their first debate
next week.
Fetterman added that a list of debate concessions from Oz's campaign team
earlier in the day,
made it abundantly clear that they think it is funny to mock a stroke survivor.
And he also says, I'm eager to put my record and my values up against Dr.
Oz's is any day of the week as I recover from the stroke and
improve my auditory processing and speech.
I look forward to continuing to meet with the people of Pennsylvania.
Just a complete class act.
>> Yeah, that's class act.
>> And then today Dana Perino confronted Dr. Oz about what happened,
I haven't seen this video yet, so let's watch.
>> How do you respond to that?
He's saying that he felt that you were making fun of his health and
that this is going to be the reason that he won't debate.
Were you making fun of his health?
>> Of course not.
I've said all along as a physician, I have tremendous empathy and compassion for
how challenging it is to bounce back from a stroke.
I offer John Fetterman numerous opportunities to
explain to me how I can make it easier for him to debate.
But at this point since he's given numerous reasons for not showing up,
including the fact that he didn't have time on his schedule.
I'm of the opinion that he's hiding his radical views cuz he is the furthest far
left radical candidate at any competitive Senate race this cycle and
he doesn't want those views to be exposed.
>> Now, you're continuing to mock his health condition.
>> He did it right there.
>> Yeah.
>> I saw it. >> Exactly.
>> Did you catch it?
>> He's unbearable, this guy is like so greasy.
>> Yeah, yeah, but this is one of the plays that you have to do if the other
side won't debate you, you have to and get to complain about it, that's true.
He's at the same time lying.
The idea that Fetterman is some crazy radical,
what was the last thing Fetterman made news for?
Was pushing Joe Biden to declare that he was de scheduling marijuana.
Not like full national legalization or anything.
These are pretty moderate proposals designed to fit in with Biden's worldview.
They show an understanding of the way politics works.
Unfortunately with Joe Biden, he's not a radical.
That said, I think it makes sense that he would want to be fully there in terms of
his ability to hear and speak before doing a debate.
>> Totally.
>> But also, let's keep it real, he's leading and
the person who's leading in a race never really wants to debate.
What's the point of debating at that point?
>> Right. >> And so even if he's a little bit shaky,
then why risk it?
And so if you're Oz, you'd be frustrated, I'm frustrated when people don't debate,
so I get that too.
>> You're being unbearably fair to Oz in this story.
>> And I will gain nothing from it.
>> No, nothing.
>> [CROSSTALK] Nothing.
>> No one will remember it, I'm a radical and I'm insane, I need to be stopped.
Well, I do wanna just end on Fetterman campaign and a video that they released
this morning to address Oz's repeated attacks on his health.
Let's watch.
>> How many of you?
Maybe yourself have had a big health challenge in your own life?
>> [CROSSTALK] Yeah.
>> Any of your parents?
>> [CROSSTALK] Yeah.
>> Any of your children, maybe?
>> [CROSSTALK] Yeah.
>> Can you even imagine that if you had a doctor that was mocking your illness?
>> [CROSSTALK] Yeah.
Ridiculing that?
Well, here we are, here we are right now.
I would like to think that Dr. Oz may have really lost his way,
if you're gonna make fun of somebody that had a stroke.
>> [CROSSTALK] Yeah.
>> But I don't think he ever had his way,
because this is a guy that made a career of selling miracle diet pills.
>> No, he gets it, man.
He understands how to connect with people.
>> Yeah. >> And
that's the most powerful skill to have in politics.
The thing about Fetterman is he's sincere too,
because you can tell when a politician is just being a politician,
when they're pandering to certain communities or certain groups.
But what he said in that video,
how do you not think about family members who have suffered various illnesses and
then the idea of a doctor mocking them over those illnesses.
So, that was a great video,
the only negative news I have in regard to this race is it appears that Oz,
based on recent polling is closing the lead that Fetterman has.
And so let's take a quick look at this.
So it shows that Mehmet Oz has about 44% of people saying
that they would vote for him and John Fetterman has 48%.
And I just remember Fetterman is lead being a lot higher or bigger.
>> It depends, I've looked at the real clear list of polls and it's sometimes
four, sometimes five, there was an 11, but it's probably a four or five point race.
>> Yeah, well, Fetterman is doing well, he knows how to connect with people.
So I'm still hopeful, very hopeful about that race and
we'll keep updating you on what we hear.