Oz, Fetterman spar over abortion, inflation and crime in crucial Pa. Senate debate

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz met for their only scheduled debate of the crucial Pennsylvania Senate race with a focus on abortion, gun violence, fracking and Fetterman’s health.

It was the longest public appearance for Fetterman, the Democratic candidate, since suffering a stroke in May. He has been using closed captioning technology in interviews as he deals with ongoing auditory issues. At the beginning of the debate, the moderators showed the screens behind them that were displaying the questions and the transcription of everything Oz was saying.

“Let’s also talk about the elephant in the room,” Fetterman said during his opening remarks. “I had a stroke. [Oz] has never let me forget that. And I might miss some words during this debate, mush two words together, but knock me down, I'm going to keep coming back up.”

Fetterman did stumble over words over the course of the one-hour debate, which took place in the state capital, Harrisburg. He has led in the polling to replace retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey since the summer, but the gap has narrowed to within the margin of error in a number of polls.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s organization has spent millions on the race in an attempt to defend what is considered this year’s most vulnerable Republican seat. Should Fetterman win the race, it will become much more difficult for the GOP to reclaim the Senate.

Oz, the Republican celebrity doctor and cardiothoracic surgeon who attended medical and business school at the University of Pennsylvania, moved to the state after decades living in New Jersey to compete for the Senate seat. He’s tried for months to prove his Keystone State bona fides, and continued doing so throughout Tuesday’s debate, telling anecdotes from his travels around the commonwealth.

When asked about a proposed 15-week federal abortion ban on Tuesday, Oz indicated that he didn’t believe in any federal regulation of the procedure, stating that he wanted “women, doctors, local political leaders, letting the democracy that’s always allowed our nation to thrive to put the best ideas forward so states can decide for themselves.” In audio from an event during the Republican primary, however, Oz said “life starts at conception” and “it’s still murder, if you were to terminate a child whether their heart’s beating or not.”

Oz called Fetterman the real extremist on abortion. The Democrat said he would codify the protections previously offered by Roe v. Wade into law and that he would support funding the transportation of women in states that did not offer the procedure to states where it was legal. He sidestepped a question, however, on what abortion regulations he believes are appropriate, reiterating his support for Roe.

Oz also attacked Fetterman on crime and his work on the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, saying Fetterman was not supportive enough of law enforcement, a theme that Oz's campaign has hammered for weeks.

And Oz invoked a 2013 incident in which Fetterman, then mayor of the Pittsburgh suburb of Braddock, confronted a Black jogger with a shotgun. Fetterman has refused to apologize for the incident, and continued to do so Tuesday despite Oz’s prodding. The jogger, Christopher Miyares, has disputed Fetterman’s version of events while still supporting his Senate bid.

When asked about crime, Oz ducked a question about whether he would support the gun safety legislation that passed this summer with the support of Toomey. The outgoing senator has been a leading Republican on the issue of gun control and earned the backing of the gun safety group Everytown in his 2016 reelection bid.

The same organization has pledged at least $2.1 million in spending against Oz and other Republicans in Pennsylvania. In its first ad, the group says Oz “won’t keep us safe,” citing his opposition to background checks.

Moderators confronted both men with prior statements in which they said they were against fracking, but both said they now firmly support the natural gas extraction process opposed by environmentalists. Climate change was not brought up during the event.

Fetterman stumbled some when moderators confronted him with a 2018 interview in which he said he opposed fracking. When called out on the discrepancy, he said he does “support fracking” before becoming flustered.

“I support fracking and I don’t, I don’t — I support fracking and I stand and I do support fracking,” Fetterman said.

On inflation, Oz said there was too much government waste and attacked President Biden’s policies, while Fetterman attributed it to corporate greed and price gouging. Both men said they did not support adding justices to the Supreme Court, an idea favored by some progressives given the court’s conservative majority.

After being asked about physicians criticizing his long history of promoting questionable products on his TV show, Oz replied by saying many Pennsylvania residents had thanked him for his nationally syndicated medical advice and that his program was “a television show, like this [debate] is a television show. So people can run commercials on the shows.”

Additionally, Oz said he would support a 2024 presidential run by Donald Trump, who endorsed him in the May primary. When Oz was asked about the various legal investigations into Trump, he said he hadn't been following them closely. Fetterman said he would support Biden, whom he greeted in Pittsburgh last week, should the president decide to run for reelection.

When pressed about his stroke, Fetterman did not say he’d release detailed medical records. His campaign circulated a letter last week from Dr. Clifford Chen, a Pittsburgh doctor, who wrote that Fetterman’s lungs, heart and strength were normal and that he “spoke intelligently without cognitive defects.”

Chen added that the Senate candidate “is well and shows strong commitment to maintaining good fitness and health practices. He has no work restrictions and can work full duty in public office.”

Four days before the May 17 Democratic primary, Fetterman’s campaign announced that he was in the hospital recovering from a stroke. He then underwent a procedure to have a pacemaker and defibrillator inserted. He was off the trail recovering until mid-August.

During that time, Oz posted a “basement tracker” to social media, noting the number of days since Fetterman had held a public event. And an Oz campaign staffer said in August that if Fetterman “had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn't have had a major stroke and wouldn't be in the position of having to lie about it constantly.”

Fetterman was not known as a proficient debater prior to his stroke, with the Philadelphia Inquirer writing that he “seemed more uncomfortable than his competitors and struggled at times to answer questions he likely knew were coming his way” in April’s primary debate. In a memo circulated in advance of Tuesday’s event, the Fetterman campaign downplayed expectations and said he “did not get where he is by winning debates or being a polished speaker. He got here because he truly connects with Pennsylvanians."

“The TV studio is Oz’s comfort zone,” read the memo. “This guy is a media-savvy performer who literally built his career (and his fortune) by playing to the cameras as a daytime TV host.”

Despite the Fetterman campaign’s efforts to manage expectations going into the debate, Pennsylvania voters saw a candidate on Tuesday still recovering from the aftereffects of his stroke. The question for remaining undecided voters is whether they feel Fetterman is up to the job — and whether Oz has tried to unfairly benefit from his opponent’s hardship.