This past Tuesday evening, Pennsylvania Lt. Governor and Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman faced off against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz just two weeks prior to those living in the state being slated to cast their ballots.
The pair of politicians verbally battled over a large range of topics, from crime and abortion to inflation and fracking, as the Democrat attempted to label his adversary as a wholesale liar and the Republican made the argument that his opponent was radically progressive. In the wake of suffering a stroke just a few days prior to the state primary elections that resulted in him in the hospital and his removal from the campaign trail for multiple months, Fetterman consistently faltered and issued very choppy answers where Oz, as a well known veteran TV host, aggressively pressed Fetterman and would go past his time limits on occasion.
After putting forth numerous examples of talks that he has had with the state’s residents over the past few months, Oz went after Fetterman, who failed to commit throughout the debate to officially releasing his medical records, regarding his odd absence from the campaign trail. Firing back, Fetterman heavily criticized Oz for his long-held residence out in New Jersey. Even with a system set up behind the moderators for closed captioning set up to assist with his auditory processing, Fetterman had a tough time staying coherent.
Discussion regarding the current state of the economy quickly shifted over to energy. Oz shifted the conversation back to natural gas production and fracking as a method for increasing the living standards in Pennsylvania, while Fetterman claimed that he has “always supported” the concept of fracking when his past statements opposing the method were brought back up.
Fetterman claimed that he “absolutely” stood in support of increasing the state of Pennsylvania’s minimum wage from where it sits at $7.25 to $15.00. Oz made the argument that the minimum wage should be pushed “as high as it can go” via market forces, which have already forced the normal average wages to increase to a level over $7.25, while a solid federal wage floor would force unneeded strain onto smaller businesses.
When speaking on the topic of abortion, Fetterman stated that “abortion is health care” and promised to “codify” the ruling from the Supreme Court regarding Roe v. Wade, which ended up being overturned earlier this past year. When the event moderators swapped to press Oz to speak on his support of rape and incest exemptions with his pro-life position, the man stated that he would leave all abortion policies to the states.
“As a physician, I’ve been in the room when there’s some difficult conversations happening,” stated Oz. “I don’t want the federal government involved with that at all.”
Fetterman closed out his remarks by making reference to his own health issues as a motivation for his service within the federal government, claiming that he would represent all the Pennsylvanians who are also struggling. “I’ve made my entire career dedicated to those kinds of pursuits,” he expressed.
Oz also made one final appeal for wholesale unity while calling on viewers to think about the current path of the country. “None of this has to happen,” stated Oz in reference to various Democratic policies. “This is all very addressable.”
