MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough criticized Democratic Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman’s performance at Tuesday night’s debate against his Republican opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Fetterman raised eyebrows among critics and members of the media after he repeatedly stumbled over his words and often appeared confused during the debate. The Democratic candidate has struggled with speech and his auditory processing abilities ever since suffering a stroke in May.
“You had, of course, Fetterman who’s struggling,” Scarborough said. “He’s struggling with the effects of his stroke he suffered in May and I said it’s very obvious that he’s impaired. His ability to communicate is impaired and the question is now Pennsylvania voters have a pinnacle of choices.”
Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman said the debate proved that Fetterman is struggling from his stroke‘s effects, leaving voters in a position to decide whether he is fit to serve in the U.S. Senate.
Scarborough backed NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns’ previous remarks that the Democratic candidate is, in fact, struggling with speech. Burns, who interviewed Fetterman in early October, said during an Oct. 11 appearance on MSNBC that he struggled with small talk. (RELATED: Democrats, Media Rush To Defend Fetterman After Debate With Oz)
“I remember Dasha Burns getting in trouble a couple of weeks ago with people on the left and even some mainstream voices that he was having trouble with small talk but it was very obvious last night and of course he underwent, had a major stroke. So the question, Willy [Geist], is not whether he is going to be able to serve, the question is how impaired is he and that’s something that the voters of Pennsylvania are going to be sorting through even if people on the left want to pretend it doesn’t exist. It does exist but that doesn’t mean he can’t serve as senator. That’s up to the people of Pennsylvania.”
Scarborough also criticized Oz for his position on abortion and other issues, which he claimed do not align with the people of Pennsylvania.
“It was interesting, last night I wrote something that was very obvious,” Scarborough said. “Dr. Oz is a very slick guy who doesn’t happen to fit Pennsylvania, he made some statements that I know caused great concerns to people in Pennsylvania especially in the words of Charlie Pierce, he wanted the Parks and Recreation people to make decisions on the local level for abortions. I don’t know how that’s gonna play in Scranton, probably not very well.”
The MSNBC anchor tweeted Tuesday night that Fetterman lacks the ability to communicate, which will resonate with voters even if the media attempts to cover it up.
“John Fetterman’s ability to communicate is seriously impaired. Pennsylvania voters will be talking about this obvious fact even if many in the media will not,” he said.
John Fetterman’s ability to communicate is seriously impaired. Pennsylvania voters will be talking about this obvious fact even if many in the media will not.
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) October 26, 2022
This is painful to watch regardless of one’s politics,” he said in a separate tweet.
The Fetterman campaign attributed his stumbling to an alleged issue where the teleprompter delayed the captions.
“We are thrilled with John’s performance,” the campaign said. “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.”