CNN’s Don Lemon had U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman on his show on Tuesday morning, and it didn’t go particularly well. Fetterman used a closed-captioning system for the interview, but that didn’t exactly help him much — even on the friendly platform.
But, ignoring Fetterman’s health issues, the real important part of the interview was Fetterman’s poor response to the issue of his medical condition. Don Lemon, to his credit, pushed the issue of his failure to release his medical records.
“Listen, we’ve heard a little from your doctor, but, we haven’t heard a lot,” Lemon said. “You’re asking voters to trust you on your word that your health is good without the full story. So in the interest of full transparency for the voters, do you think it would help if you let your doctors brief the press before election night?”
“I think we’ve been pretty transparent,” Fetterman claimed. “You know, we’ve had our doctors just be very clear that they’re here… that we’re able to and fit to… to deserve, and from my point, ummm you know, we’ve been also been very transparent in terms of showing up at a debate and very transparent about, you know, having events in front of thousands and thousands of Pennsylvanians for months.”
Fetterman continued, “And I was again, no, it was no secret that I was gonna miss some words. I was gonna push some words together. And as we’ve been very clear in… in the debate, and during… during this… this interview, I’ve been using captioning as well, true. I believe we’ve been pretty transparent to give all the voters to make it their-their choice.”
But Lemon clearly wasn’t satisfied. No doubt he wants to believe Fetterman is physically and mentally capable of doing the job and wants him to prove it to the voters, but Fetterman clearly doesn’t want the voters to know his true health status.
“And listen, I’m asking the question for the voters because then voters may wonder, is there a reason that you don’t want your doctors to take questions? That’s why I keep asking this.”
“I just… I just believe that we have our doctors just weigh in on that. And they believe that I’m fit to serve.”
DON LEMON: “The voters may wonder…is there a reason that you don’t want your doctors to take questions?”
FETTERMAN: “I just believe that we have our doctors weigh in on that, and they believe that I’m fit to serve.” pic.twitter.com/V5WzSxo5xe
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) November 1, 2022
In short, Fetterman basically regurgitated the same canned response he gave during the debate. His position is that he’s being transparent by campaigning and participating in the debate. If he really believes that, he doesn’t understand what transparency means, or he thinks we’re all stupid.
Claiming he’s healthy isn’t being transparent. Nor is participating in the debate or releasing a note from his Democrat-donor doctor instead of his medical records. The fact is that his appearances on the campaign trail are what have raised questions about his health rather than proving he’s capable of doing the job.
Related: Fetterman’s Biggest Problem in the Debate Wasn’t His Stroke
Multiple polls since the debate have shown that Dr. Oz is now ahead of Fetterman, so Fetterman has to understand that his performance hurt his campaign. Yet the one thing that could clear this up, Fetterman’s medical records, will not be released. That much is clear. Nor will Fetterman have his doctor answer questions from the media.
We all know the reason why. The Fetterman campaign realizes there’s more to lose by releasing his records or having his doctor speak to the media than there is to keep the true extent of his mental health under wraps until after the election. But what’s really insulting is the way he pretends that what he’s done so far is being “transparent.”