Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman is “recovering well from his stroke” and “has no work restrictions and can work full duty in public office,” according to a medical report released Wednesday by the lieutenant governor’s primary care physician.
The new disclosure from the Senate candidate comes more than five months after a near fatal stroke days before the May Democratic primary forced him off the trail. Even after his return to campaigning, Fetterman’s recovery has hung over his race against Republican candidate Mehmet Oz in what has become one of the most closely watched Senate contests in the country.
The new report, written by Dr. Clifford Chen, comes following an October 14 visit to the doctor by the Democratic nominee. Chen wrote that while Fetterman “spoke intelligently without cognitive deficits,” he “continues to exhibit symptoms of an auditory processing disorder which can come across as hearing difficulty,” something the candidate has routinely acknowledged himself and is the reason he used closed captioning in interviews since his stroke.
“Occasional words he will ‘miss’ which seems like he doesn’t hear the word but it is actually not processed properly,” Chen wrote. “His hearing of sound such as music is not affected. His communication is significantly improved compared to his first visit assisted by speech therapy which he has attended on a regular basis since the stroke.”
Hitting the campaign trail hard:
Democratic U.S. Senate nominee John Fetterman on Sunday urged about 200 supporters to make him “that 51st vote” to secure Democrats’ narrow hold on the Senate.
Speaking at a get-out-the-vote rally, Fetterman accused Republican nominee Mehmet Oz of attempting to “buy” the seat by moving to Pennsylvania from New Jersey and spending millions of dollars of his own money on his campaign.
“I’m running to serve Pennsylvania. Oz is running to use Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said at Dickinson Square Park.
He vowed to fight to end the Senate filibuster, increase the minimum wage, protect labor unions, and expand access to health care.
He also said he would vote to codify abortion rights if elected.
“If anyone believes that a woman’s reproductive freedom belongs — that choice belongs — with Dr. Oz, you know who you can vote for,” he said. “But if you believe that that choice belongs with each woman and their doctor — what’s their right choice? — [I’m] the person that’s going to fight for that in this race.”
And getting support from the his fellow Democrats:
In the 30-second spot, Obama addresses Pennsylvania voters directly about the “important choices” they’ll be making this year, including “the fate of our democracy and a woman’s right to choose.”
“I know John will fight for Pennsylvanians,” the 44th president concludes, endorsing the lieutenant governor for the Senate seat. “You can count on John Fetterman; make sure he can count on you.”
And from the big guy himself:
President Joe Biden said Thursday that the “rest of the world is looking” to see who holds control of Congress after the upcoming midterm elections, warning that Republican victories would jeopardize the nation’s standing abroad as tried to deliver a boost to Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman’s campaign for the Senate.
Speaking at a fundraiser in Philadelphia, Biden sounded the alarm about what he viewed as the urgency of the moment, saying Republicans are trying to roll back access to abortion and raise the price of prescription drugs. He seized on comments by some GOP lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, casting doubt on the U.S. commitment to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s invasion of its territory.
“They said that if they win they’re not likely to fund, to continue to fund Ukraine,” Biden said. “These guys don’t get it. It’s a lot bigger than Ukraine. It’s Eastern Europe. It’s NATO. It’s really serious, serious, consequential outcomes.”
He added: “The rest of the world is looking at this election as well. Both the good guys and the bad guys out there — to see what’s going to happen. We’ve got to win. John’s got to win.”
Biden’s comments came at the conclusion of a daylong visit to the state, where a Democratic victory would strongly improve the party’s chances of holding onto the Senate. Fetterman is facing Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Republican, for an open seat being vacated by Sen. Pat Toomey, also a Republican.
Biden called Oz “a perfect example” of what he has termed “MAGA Republicans,” referencing former President Donald Trumps “Make America Great Again” slogan. Trump endorsed Oz’s candidacy, delivering him a critical boost in the GOP primary earlier this year.
And of course from his potential Senate colleagues:
While also reminding voters how much of a Quack Oz is:
Several years ago, Dr. Belinda Birnbaum walked into a room for a checkup to find an angry rash had erupted across the face of one of her patients, a breast cancer survivor battling an autoimmune condition.
The woman burst into tears as soon as she made eye contact with Birnbaum, admitting her skin had broken out after she’d applied a homemade tropical fruit face mask she’d heard about on The Dr. Oz Show, the Montgomery County rheumatologist recalls.
The patient, a breast cancer survivor, had spent months fighting her autoimmune disease, which was at first so severe she could barely rise from a chair or lift her arms above her head. But with persistence through a frustratingly slow recovery, her condition had improved. She’d started to be able to go on walks with her husband again, Birnbaum said.
Except, she had a faint face rash that had been distressing her — so she tried the fruit mask from Dr. Mehmet Oz’s show in hopes of clearing it away. Instead, her skin flared up with orange, itchy bumps, Birnbaum said.
“This strong, brave patient who had been fighting for so many months, who had already been through so much, was absolutely taken down and crushed,” the doctor remembered. “She was humiliated, and she was angry. And she said to me, ‘I thought I could trust him because he’s a doctor.’”
Birnbaum is one of roughly 150 Pennsylvania physicians who have signed a letter denouncing Oz, who’s now running for Pennsylvania Senate, for “spreading misinformation and sharing factually incorrect medical advice” on his Emmy-winning television show. The doctors are instead encouraging voters to support Oz’s opponent, Democrat John Fetterman, in the November election.
Some of these physicians say their condemnation of Oz isn’t hypothetical — it’s borne out of their personal experiences with patients who trusted the celebrity doctor’s show and followed the advice broadcast on it.
And a fraud:
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Meanwhile, over in the Governor’s race:
A senior adviser to Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, on Friday seemed to openly question the faith of Mr. Mastriano’s Democratic opponent, Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, in a contest that has been shaped more by concerns over antisemitism than perhaps any other major race in the country.
“Josh Shapiro is at best a secular Jew in the same way Joe Biden is a secular Catholic,” Jenna Ellis, a former lawyer for the Trump campaign who worked to overturn the 2020 election, wrote on Twitter, commenting on a headline that noted Mr. Shapiro’s faith. Ms. Ellis branded the two Democrats as “extremists,” pointing to gender surgery for minors and distorting their positions on abortion rights.
“Doug Mastriano is for wholesome family values and freedom,” wrote Ms. Ellis, who is not Jewish.
Mr. Shapiro, 49, the state’s attorney general, is an observant Jew whose faith is a central part of his public identity. He keeps kosher, prioritizes Sabbath dinner with his family and is a Jewish day school alum.
“These attacks on Attorney General Shapiro and on all people of faith are another reminder of the stakes of this race,” said Manuel Bonder, a spokesman for the Shapiro campaign. “Our campaign is staying focused on bringing people together to defeat Mastriano’s dangerous extremism.”
Even the conservative Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Editorial Board is endorsing Shapiro:
Mr. Shapiro, a boyish 49, has run a far more conventional campaign, answering questions from the media and public and rolling out numerous policy proposals. Among them: eliminating four-year degree requirements for thousands of state jobs, reducing the influence of standardized testing, putting mental health counselors in schools, appointing at least two parents to the state Board of Education, and promoting economic development by reducing taxes, streamlining the permitting process, and making robotics, biosciences and energy priorities. He has said he would sign a bill abolishing Pennsylvania’s inhumane, expensive and ineffective death-penalty law.
Mr. Shapiro, a former state representative in his second term as state attorney general, is no firebrand. He might not blow voters away with charisma. But he is competent, polished, smart and effective.
As AG, Mr. Shapiro negotiated an agreement between Highmark and UPMC that protected health care for nearly 2 million people in Western Pennsylvania. He led a bipartisan group of Attorneys General to take on the pharmaceutical industry, delivering more than $1 billion to Pennsylvania to fight opioid addiction. In a landmark prevailing-wage case, he charged one of the state’s largest construction companies, Hawbaker Inc., with wage theft and returned $20 million to workers.
We respect Mr. Mastriano’s service to his country. We trust him to keep his word, pay his taxes and buckle his seatbelt. But we don’t trust him to lead a state of nearly 13 million people, with all of its complexity and diversity.
Mr. Shapiro won’t revolutionize the state government or burn it to the ground. He will, however, incrementally make it work better for all people. His opponent is too dangerous and too extreme. We urge voters to make Josh Shapiro the 48th governor of Pennsylvania.
And while one election denier may not get elected in Pennsylvania, we can’t let another one make it into the U.S. Senate:
In recent months, Trump has convened a series of in-person meetings and conference calls to discuss laying the groundwork to challenge the 2022 midterm election results, four people familiar with the conversations tell Rolling Stone. In these conversations, pro-Trump groups, attorneys, Republican Party activists, and MAGA diehards often discuss the type of scorched-earth legal tactics they could deploy.
And they’ve gamed out scenarios for how to aggressively challenge elections, particularly ones in which a winner is not declared on Election Night. If there’s any hint of doubt about the winners, the teams plan to wage aggressive court campaigns and launch a media blitz. Trump himself set the blueprint for this on Election Night 2020, when — with the race far from decided — he went on national television to declare: “Frankly, we did win this election.”
Trump has been briefed on plans in multiple states and critical races — including in Georgia. But Pennsylvania has grabbed his interest most keenly, including in the Senate contest between Democrat John Fetterman and the Trump-endorsed GOP contender Mehmet Oz. If the Republican does not win by a wide enough margin to trigger a speedy concession from Fetterman — or if the vote tally is close on or after Election Night in November — Trump and other Republicans are already preparing to wage a legal and activist crusade against the “election integrity” of Democratic strongholds such as the Philly area.
Trump’s focus on Pennsylvania, however, seems to be more about his own political future than about party allegiance or fealty to his celebrity endorsee. As he hosts meetings on possible 2022 election challenges, he’s also been laying the groundwork for a run in 2024 — where Pennsylvania again promises to be critical and competitive. As one source who has spoken to Trump several times about a potential post-election-day legal battle over the Oz-Fetterman race puts it, Trump views a potential midterm challenge as a “dress rehearsal for Trump 2024.”
Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 and then lost it to Biden in 2020 by more than 80,000, and if the two candidates rematch in 2024, it could well be the state that picks the next president. At the Trump tower meeting in September, Trump also pushed the officials on their efforts limit mail-in voting, the Morning Times and Semafor report. (The biggest 2022 boon for Trump’s 2024 hopes could come if Doug Mastriano — the state’s Trump-touting, 2020 election denying GOP nominee for governor — manages to pull off an upset. But the people in Trump’s orbit, reading the same polls as everyone else, see little chance of that happening.)
Trump is gripped by the belief that he got cheated in Philadelphia in 2020, and this time around, he has privately demanded his allies concentrate additional firepower and legal resources in the commonwealth’s largest and most racially diverse metro area. In recent weeks, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, the ex-president has asked several advisers and at least one of his attorneys what national and Pennsylvania Republicans are doing to prevent Democrats from — in his words — “steal[ing] it in Philadelphia [like] they did last time.”
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