Democrat Pennsylvania Senate candidate and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has not formally offered to participate in a debate, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, told Breitbart News Saturday, surmising that his challenger is either seeking to cover up his radical left positions or lying about the state of his health.
Last week, Fetterman appeared to finally cave, agreeing to debate Oz and proclaiming that it was “always our intent to do that.” However, despite popular belief, Oz said the issue has not been put to bed, as there has been no formal agreement whatsoever. Rather, his Democrat challenger has only agreed to a debate “conceptually,” providing no details to make it happen.
“There is no Fetterman debate offer. He conceptually agreed that you know, he’d show up at some point, but a debate has to be held at a specific time, a specific place, got to be on TV stations. You have to have a host. He’s given us none of those details,” Oz explained.
“They cannot be imaginary and as you pointed out, I have agreed to six very specific debates– three in September — the second one was last night he didn’t show up — and three in October, and I will do whatever I can to serve the people of Pennsylvania,” he said. “But John Fetterman has agreed to zero debates. [He] doesn’t have the interests at heart of the voters.”
Ultimately Oz said his Democrat challenger is either trying to cover up a “radical” record or lying about the status of his health. Fetterman suffered a stroke in May. The Democrat has openly admitted he has “auditory processing” issues due to his stroke.
“I think he’s dodging,” Oz told Breitbart News Saturday. “It’s really a problem because you can’t have it both ways anymore. Either he’s healthy — which he says he is — and wants to hide his far left radical record, or he’s been lying about his health. Again, I’m a physician. I have tremendous empathy for how hard it is to recover from the challenges of a stroke and heart failure. But this is not about health. This is about honesty.”
“I know it’s a challenge,” Oz said, but he concluded that it is beside the point, as Fetterman owes it to the people of Pennsylvania to tell them the truth.
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“It’s up to John Fetterman to be honest and transparent with the voters of Pennsylvania to share with them … what he thinks they should know,” Oz said, explaining that he has spoken with senators, including Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), who said the Keystone State must have a senator “who’s capable of doing the job of fighting for them.”
“In the greatest deliberative body in the world, the U.S. Senate. You have to be able to articulate your views. You have to understand what others are saying. And if John Fetterman can’t explain his far left radical positions, then that’s a concern,” he said, noting that the establishment media has failed to ask these questions.
“Fetterman is offering a debate some time amorphously in late October,” he said, explaining that this is problematic, as absentee ballots are mailed out in two weeks.
“So 20 percent of the people in Pennsylvania get to vote with those ballots. They’re not going to have the privilege of having heard me and John Fetterman battle it out to ask tough questions of each other,” Oz said, explaining that he has held 200 campaign events, answering tough questions on the campaign trial. His opponent, however, has not. Oz added that Fetterman has not answered spontaneous questions on the campaign trail and estimated that he has only spoken a handful of minutes.
“I’ve been able to address any shortcomings people may perceive of me. John Fetterman, for democracy to work, must do the same. He has not answered a spontaneous question on the spot on the campaign trail. I tried to add it up, but maybe he’s spoken for 20, 25 minutes total for the entire campaign. I mean, it’s — how do you run a campaign and never talk to anybody?” Oz asked, briefly walking through some of Fetterman’s radical positions, such as opposing fracking, as well as championing teachers unions and socialized medicine.
“These are the kinds of outlandish far-left ideas that Fetterman offers, but he will not defend because he knows he can’t,” the Republican Senate hopeful added. “That’s why he doesn’t answer any questions, and that’s why he’s refusing to debate.”