MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell, Wednesday on his show “The Last Word,” compared stroke survivor Democratic Senate candidate Lt. Gov John Fetterman (D-PA) to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill because they also had health issues.
Discussing a book on Winston Churchill’s health problems, O’Donnell said, “During all of those illnesses, including the stroke, Winston Churchill was serving as the now widely regarded greatest British prime minister in history. A British prime minister who rallied his country to continue to fight Hitler when it seemed that all was lost. When he suffered an acute stroke, Prime Minister Churchill simply retreated to his country house for a few months. When he made his first public speeches after his stroke, Churchill worried that he wouldn’t be able to stay standing through the speeches, but he did. And no one, no one, except his doctors and family, and very close staff, knew that Churchill had a stroke.”
He continued, “Winston Churchill won World War II by strategizing, sometimes side-by-side, with the president of the United States who served longer than any president and whose health was never good. Franklin Roosevelt once fell to the floor of his private railroad car, clutching his chest in agony in the company of only his son, James, who he told he didn’t think he was going to make it. He suffered unreported episodes but seemed like minor strokes. He was ill for a long period of time and left the White House for long periods of time to recuperate. Franklin Roosevelt lost the ability to walk or even stand up at the age of 39 when he was struck with polio.”
He added, “Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill had the good fortune to serve as the highest elected officials in their countries, long before television news to cover their every move and long before Twitter could have people pumping out their instant reactions to public appearances. Franklin Roosevelt believed that it would be painful to watch him being lifted in and out of a car by Secret Service agents, so he never allowed cameras to capture that.”
O’Donnell concluded, “Painful to watch quickly became an oft-repeated phrase on Twitter last night during the Pennsylvania Senate campaign debate because Democratic candidate John Fetterman suffered a stroke this summer and has not fully recovered 100% of his verbal fluency…While he was brilliantly winning World War II, Franklin Roosevelt once fell asleep in the Oval Office in the middle of signing his name to a letter. That was not painful to watch because no one got to see that. The painful-to-watch reviews last night seemed oddly disconnected to this country’s own experience with illness and elected office, including the experience of two members of the United States Senate who had strokes this year! Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico suffered a stroke in January. He took time off and eventually came back to work. Our first guest tonight, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen suffered a stroke in May, he took time off, and he came back to work.”
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