An article in The Atlantic essentially confirmed NBC journalist Dasha Burns’ widely disputed claim that Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman appears to have problems making conversation without the use of closed captioning, noting he had difficulty responding “meaningfully” to voter questions.
In a Sunday piece headlined, “Do Voters Care About John Fetterman’s Stroke?,” Atlantic staff writer Elaine Godfrey noted that Fetterman “still struggles to process the words that he hears, and sometimes he can’t quite express what he means” five months after he suffered a stroke.
She also noted that his wife Gisele, who a Rolling Stone writer called a “de facto” candidate last week, generally led interactions with voters.
“Fetterman sounds a lot more like his old self now than he did in August, when he first returned to the campaign trail. But he still stumbles in his speech. At a rally I attended outside Philadelphia last weekend, he delivered a few applause lines and phrases that were difficult to understand; occasionally, the audience would answer with tentative claps. After the event, Fetterman did not entertain questions from reporters, and seemed unable to respond all that meaningfully to on-the-fly comments from voters; his wife, Gisele, appeared to be the one leading those interactions,” Godfrey wrote. “But while Fetterman may not be able to do small talk, he is able to participate in interviews where he can use real-time closed-captioning, a live transcription of questions appearing on his laptop.”
LIBERALS RUSH TO DEFEND FETTERMAN AS REPORTERS QUESTION HIS MENTAL FITNESS FOLLOWING NBC INTERVIEW
Last week, when Fetterman granted Burns an in-person interview, the NBC reporter explained the candidate had a problem understanding “small talk” before the interview that relying on closed-caption technology from a desktop computer, so he could read Burns’ questions in real time.
A swarm of journalists and pundits rushed to defend Fetterman and bash Burns, with many liberal media members attempting to debunk the notion that he had trouble communicating. Many left-wing critics took aim at Burns, with Vox’s Kara Swisher calling Burns claim “nonsense” and podcast host Molly Jong-Fast declaring Fetterman “understood everything” during their recent chat.
Godfrey, who covers national politics for The Atlantic, believes Fetterman’s health is an issue, regardless of what his allies in the press have to say.
“Clearly, observers cannot agree about the degree of impairment or disability that Fetterman is experiencing. But this much is certain: His health is a legitimate consideration for the voters he is seeking to represent in Congress. And although Fetterman’s critics are framing his stroke as a liability, the Democrat is hoping that his health challenge makes him a more relatable—and therefore more appealing—candidate. The question is what voters should make of it all,” Godfrey wrote, noting that Fetterman “stayed home” and out of the spotlight for much of the campaign while his social media team compensated with creative messaging.
FETTERMAN STILL HAS ‘A HARD TIME UNDERSTANDING’ CONVERSATIONS, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT REPORTS
Fetterman is set to use the closed-captioning tool during an upcoming debate with Republican opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz. Fetterman’s team has not released all of his health records, so The Atlantic writer feels “we can only observe and guess” what his abilities truly are.
“It’s reasonable to ask whether Fetterman’s stroke damaged his cognition, his ability to learn and to comprehend language—and how he might function as a senator,” Godfrey wrote. “Fetterman’s symptoms seem consistent with aphasia, a common stroke effect in which a person loses their ability to comprehend or express spoken words—sometimes both.”
Burns also noted in her report for NBC that Fetterman had refused to turn over his medical records. That’s led to speculative reports in such outlets as the Washington Post, who have reached out to experts to guess whether Fetterman has aphasia.
“Either way, keeping those records a secret isn’t a great look for a candidate who has suffered a serious health setback on the campaign trail,” Godfrey wrote.
