Ben Shapiro retraced the media’s ever-morphing reaction to Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman Wednesday, following the ailing Democrat’s disastrous debate performance the previous night.
Shapiro told listeners to his popular podcast and radio show the Keystone State candidate, who suffered a stroke in May, has been protected by a sympathetic media. But after the hulking lieutenant governor stumbled through a series of incomprehensible answers in his debate against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, there was no hiding his neurological issues.
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“The media narrative went from ‘John Fetterman is fine,’ to, as he was out on the campaign trail babbling, ‘John Fetterman may not be fine, but he’s fine enough to be in the Senate,’ and then it went to, ‘If you notice that he’s not fine, then there is something deeply wrong with you,’” Shapiro said. “And now, after last night’s debate, the media have already swiveled to ‘It’s totally fine to have a nonfunctional stroke victim in the Senate.’”
According to the media, John Fetterman is perfectly fine. Okay, maybe he’s not fine, but you’re ableist for noticing. pic.twitter.com/cX9mzcHeFD
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 26, 2022
Fetterman suffered the stroke in May, just days before winning the Democratic primary against Rep. Conor Lamb. He was off the campaign trail for several months, although his team assured the public he was recovering. When he did finally return to the stump, he often seemed to struggle to speak. An NBC reporter who interviewed him was attacked by Fetterman supporters when she divulged that he had great difficulty conversing and relied on a computer to read questions posed in person.
In Tuesday’s debate, Fetterman greeted the audience by saying, “Hi. Goodnight everybody.” It didn’t get better as the night wore on.
A sampling of Fetterman’s quotes from the debate:
“I do support fracking — I don’t, I don’t — I support fracking, and I stand — and I do support fracking,” he stammered when confronted with his own conflicting past positions on the key issue.
“How can a man, you know, with with 10 gigantic mansions has — am willing to talk about willing wage for anybody?” Fetterman said in an attempt to attack his wealthy opponent. “Imagine a signal mom trying with two children trying to raise with them.”
Shapiro blamed Fetterman’s team and loved ones for allowing him to stay in the race after his brush with death.
“You gotta feel bad for the guy,” Shapiro said. “I mean honestly, the guy is a stroke victim, he’s obviously not functioning properly, he’s being put in front of millions of people to demonstrate his inability to process language.
“It’s embarrassing… not for him, but for his entire team,” he added.
Fetterman, who insisted on having closed captioning during the debate in order to read questions asked by the moderators, later blamed the system for his awkward pauses and answers that often bordered on gibberish.
“When you are relegated to blaming the closed captioning system, you have a massive problem on your hands,” Shapiro said.
Polls showed Fetterman and Oz were in a virtual dead heat before the debate. They are vying to replace retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey. With the Senate tied at 50-50, the Pennsylvania race is one of a handful of critical races being watched closely by a national audience.
