Pennsylvania Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, running for U.S. Senate, has a decent chance at flipping outgoing Sen. Pat Toomey’s, R-Pa., seat despite mounting criticism, Karl Rove said Thursday.
Rove, a Fox News contributor and former top aide to then-President George W. Bush, said that despite increasing pressure — including from some left-leaning quarters — to debate Republican Mehmet Oz more promptly than a few days before the election, the Democrat should be taken seriously.
He pointed out The Washington Post’s recent editorial demanding Fetterman debate Oz, as the paper’s board noted Pennsylvania’s early voting period begins Sept. 19.
Host Jesse Watters aired local news clips of then-Braddock Mayor Fetterman from 2013 — when allegedly, armed with a shotgun, he confronted a Black man after hearing what sounded like gunfire near his home.
Fetterman told Pittsburgh media at the time that he rushed inside, dialed 911 and jumped in his truck after a man he saw running.
The man, Chris Miyares, was reportedly unarmed and had been jogging. He told WTAE the purported gunfire was the sound of people setting off bottle rockets near the library.
“Fetterman did what? He chased a Black guy in his truck and pointed a shotgun at him?” Watters asked in response. “That’s who the Democrats want to run for Senate in Pennsylvania. Maybe that’s why Fetterman wants to empty the prisons.”
The host added that, as a Pennsylvania native, the dynamics of the race have an added importance.
When asked if, given that incident and growing concerns about his recent stroke and stilted speech, Fetterman “still has a shot” against Oz, Rove said he does.
“Oh, sure he does, because the Democrats are behind him. He’s got a sort of a mythology and he’s avoided a real campaign,” Rove said.
He compared Fetterman’s relative absence from the campaign trail over the summer to how President Biden remained largely in his Delaware home during the 2020 campaign and often more so choosing nearby cities like Chester, Pa., to stump.
Rove said if Fetterman had been more public during the summer, the pressing questions about some of his policy platforms on criminal justice reform, fracking bans and abortion would be better brought to the fore.
“[T]here’d be a bunch of big issues that would have been talked about and dealt with and that he’d have to have answers for: This guy is in favor of abolishing fracking,” Rove continued. “Pennsylvania is the second-largest source of natural gas production in the United States of America. I’ll let you figure out what state is number one.”
In a recent statement to Fox News, however, a Fetterman spokesman denied his candidate opposes natural gas hydraulic fracturing, saying in part, “John does not support a fracking moratorium or ban. If you were paying attention to our campaign, you would have known this has not been his position for years and that he was attacked in the primary over his support of fracking.”
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Rove claimed Fetterman’s mayorship of Braddock was potentially “the first paying job he had” following reports that he was at least partially subsidized by his York County businessman father, Karl Fetterman.
“The first real income he had was when he was elected lieutenant governor. He lived on an allowance from his parents until into his 40s,” Rove said.
According to the New York Post, which cited his father’s successful insurance business, he was paid a $54,000 salary by his parents in 2015.
Regarding his health concerns, Rove said Fetterman requested closed-captioning for his reported late October debate with Oz, to which the Republican responded that the hour-long forum should then be extended to 90 minutes to make up for the time it takes him to read the captions.
“Oz has accepted every invitation to a debate finally under pressure — The Washington Post editorialized that Fetterman better accept a debate and prove that he’s up to the job of being in the United States,” Rove said, adding it is an interesting development that the Jeff Bezos-owned paper is pressuring a Democrat like Fetterman in this way.
“When you lose The Washington Post as a Democrat, what’s happening to you?”
Fox News’ Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.
