Democratic Senate hopeful John Fetterman led with stroke jokes at a Pennsylvania rally on Friday night when his suitability for office was questioned this week after an interview showed him using captioning.
Speaking to a crowd of about 300 at the Johnstown Convention Center, Fetterman referred to how his opponent, TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz, spread “miracle cures.”
“I couldn’t pronounce it,” he said. “Before the stroke, I couldn’t even pronounce it.”
And then there was the “crudité” video in which Oz, the Trump-backed Republican hopeful, walked through a grocery store complaining about high prices — a dig at President Joe Biden — using the French phrase for a vegetarian tray.
“I remember my team sending me the video. And they said, “You have to watch this video.” And I said what are you talking about. And they said it was a raw video,” Fetterman told the crowd in Western Pennsylvania. “I never heard the world.”
“And I really thought it was a stroke,” he said with a laugh.
Fetterman suffered a stroke in May but has been defending his health since Tuesday after an NBC News interview showed the captioning technology he uses to understand speech.
Democratic Senate hopeful John Fetterman led with stroke jokes at a Friday night rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania after his eligibility for office was questioned when an NBC News interview highlighted how to caption after his stroke in May
While Fetterman was previously reported to be using closed captioning for interviews, NBC’s interview with the candidate on Tuesday drew a lot of attention as it showed viewers how the system worked.
In addition, the reporter, Dasha Burns said: “It wasn’t clear he understood what I was saying” when she and Fetterman chatted before starting.
The comments caused Oz and his allies to strike out and question whether Fetterman, the current lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, was fit to serve as a U.S. Senator.
Fetterman’s wife Gisele said in a podcast interview with Molly Jong-Fast that she hoped there would be “consequences” for Burns. “But what a disservice she has done not only my husband, but everyone who has a disability and works through it, and I don’t know how it had no effect,” Gisele said.
On Friday, she referred to what a tough 72 hours it had been for the campaign, at the top of her husband’s introduction.
“What a month this week has been,” Gisele said.
She then played how her husband was a “stroke survivor” when she welcomed him on stage.
Fetterman told the crowd he wanted to address the “elephant in the room.”
‘I had a stroke. I had a stroke in May. And that stroke could have ended my life. Gisele saved my life,” the Democrat said hopefully.
That provoked a response from the public: “She’s the one we really like,” said one female supporter of Gisele.
“I was on my way to a campaign event and walked out of a Sheetz bathroom,” Fetterman continued.
He was interrupted again.
“That’ll do it!” a male member of the crowd began to whistle.
Fetterman linked his brush with death to wanting to improve American health care.
“What kind of doctor thinks it important that a man who is sick stays sick?” he said about Dr. oz.
“You’ll have a doctor like that for the next six years,” he warned the crowd, if they don’t vote.
Fetterman peppered jokes during his 22-minute blunt speech — and kept chasing Oz because he was a New Jersey carpet dredger.
Oz lived in New Jersey during the years his TV show aired. He established a residency in Pennsylvania prior to his Senate career.
Fetterman pointed to the raucous video a second time—to remind the audience that Oz had said he was shopping at a “Wegners”—a combination of Wegman’s and Redner’s.
“Even with a stroke or not, I know where the hell I’m shopping,” Fetterman said.
He also asked the audience, “Do you chew raw food when you watch the Steelers?”
Fetterman went after Oz because he liked the Yankees and Cowboys — rather than Pennsylvania teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles.
“Do you really think Dr. Oz would raise his family in Johnstown?” Fetterman asked too.
“I live in a place like this,” Fetterman offered. “I chose Braddock, Pennsylvania, he chose New Jersey,” the lieutenant governor said.
Fetterman linked Johnstown, which has its own rusted industrial buildings, to Braddock, the steel town near Pittsburgh where Fetterman was mayor.
For years, Johnstown was associated with its powerful Democratic congressman, the late Rep. Jack Murtha.
In 2008, when Murtha was still alive, Cambria County went 50 percent to the Obama-Biden ticket, compared to 48 percent for the late Senator John McCain.
Four years later, there was a 10-point swing in the county, with Mitt Romney getting 58 percent of the vote and Obama 40.2 percent.
And Trump almost caused the province to swing another 10 full points toward Republicans. In 2016, he won Cambria Country with 67.3 percent of the vote, compared to Hillary Clinton’s 29.6 percent.
Despite Biden reverting Pennsylvania to the blue column, in Cambria County, he only improved Clinton’s performance by one point – earning 30.7 percent of the vote, compared to 68 percent for Trump.
Fetterman — and several speakers who opened before him — recognized the challenge Democrats had in the area. But Fetterman said he showed up because every vote counted.
“If you don’t live in Pennsylvania, how can you fight for Pennsylvania?” Fetterman concluded. “My last favor to you is Dr. Send Oz back to New Jersey and send me to DC’