“The View” co-host Sara Haines dismissed concerns about Democratic Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman’s cognitive abilities Friday.
The panel held an exclusive interview with Fetterman just four days before Tuesday’s midterm elections, where he stands neck-and-neck with his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz. As the co-hosts rotated to ask questions, Haines brushed off concerns regarding the candidate’s auditory processing and speech problems caused by a stroke he suffered in May.
“I was happy you released an updated letter from your doctor and it’s clear your post-stroke struggles are not cognitive and would not hinder you as a senator, so I’m just going to go ahead and move on and treat you like [a] regular candidate,” she said.
The candidate’s doctor, Dr. Clifford Chen, released a doctor’s note saying he is “maintaining good fitness and health practices” and can “work full duty in public office.”
However, a new poll found that Fetterman has lost up to 7% of support from voters who would have otherwise backed him due to his stroke. The poll followed his sub-par performance during the Oct. 25 Pennsylvania Senate debate between him and Oz.
Fetterman’s initial reluctance to debate Oz led the editorial boards of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Washington Post to question his ability to serve in the Senate and his transparency to the public about his health. (RELATED: NBC Reporter Doubles Down On Her Fetterman Observation As Liberals Rush To Defend Him)
During the debate, the Democrat struggled from the very start, beginning when he said “goodnight” to the audience in his opening statement. He continued to repeatedly stumble over his words and lose his train of thought. At one point, he stumbled and repeated that he supports fracking three times.
His debate performance raised questions about his ability to serve in the Senate. Some Democratic and Independent voters told NewsNation and former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo that they switched their support from Fetterman to Oz, believing the former is not in a state of mind to be a U.S. Senator.
NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns also came under fire for pointing to Fetterman’s “difficulty” with small talk during an exclusive interview in October. He had to read Burns’ questions and dialogue on a monitor in order to understand and answer her.