Pennsylvania swing voters got honest about the health of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman, telling MSNBC that it’s "hard to watch him speak" and that someone should have advised him not to run in his condition.
Though the collection of voters expressed sympathy for Fetterman’s condition, they admitted that it meant he wasn’t an ideal candidate.
The segment aired during MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" on Friday, as contributor Elise Jordan sat down with several swing voters from Bucks County, Pennsylvania to discuss Fetterman’s health issues.
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Just prior to the focus group discussion, Jordan noted that she showed the voters a clip from Fetterman’s recent interview with NBC reporter Dasha Burns.
That interview featured closed captioned questions from the reporter so that the candidate could better process them. Fetterman has claimed he's still suffering health effects from his stroke earlier in the year.
That interview generated controversy, as liberals and even Fetterman’s wife accused Burns of making it look as though Fetterman had cognition issues.
After viewing the clip, the Pennsylvania swing voters noticed Fetterman was having some trouble, enough for at least one of them to recommend Fetterman run for office later, when he’s healthier.
A female voter from Bucks County opened the discussion, saying, "It’s hard to watch him speak because you want the words to flow. You want him to be able to have that ease of communication."
Though she mentioned she’s not put off that he needs help from closed captioning. She said, "I don’t have a problem with the fact that he needs closed-captioning. I think that way, for him, and if he becomes my representative, I’d want him to be clear as to what the other party is saying."
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Calling it a "disability," she added, "So if he needs that assistance now, I think it’s a genuine ability to work through a disability that he’s having today."
The second voter was less lenient with Fetterman’s condition, admitting his belief that it’s a serious liability for the Democrat's campaign. Addressing the first speaker, he said, "The one thing that I got to say, that you did say, is you don’t know if he’s going to need that [closed captioning] six months from now or the rest of his life, and neither do we, and neither do his doctors at this point."
He added that Fetterman shouldn’t be running now, saying, "That’s the sad part, and that’s why I think somebody should have stepped in, and said, hey, this just isn’t the right time, John."
He then slammed Fetterman’s handlers and the Democratic Party, saying, "I think them parading him out there is a sore eye for the Democratic Party."
Another voter seemed to describe her choice for Senate this election as, "Sometimes you’re not choosing between like your favorite thing ever and something else. Is that a concern? Absolutely."
She added, "I hope that, um, that’s the only thing affected by his brain and I think it would be comforting to have a doctor say, ‘We’ve tested him’ – if there was even a way to measure that – like, ‘This is where is brain is affected and it’s not going to affect his ability to participate…"
