PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Celebrity surgeon and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz challenged Democratic opponent John Fetterman on Tuesday to explain why he won’t agree to a debate.
“John Fetterman is either healthy, and he’s dodging the debates because he does not want to answer for his radical left positions, or he’s too sick to participate in the debates,” Oz said at a news conference in a small room at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel on City Avenue.
“What happens if a U.S. Senator in an important state like Pennsylvania is elected, never having answered a legitimate question?” Oz asked.
Joining Oz was the man he’s seeking to replace, Republican Sen. Pat Toomey. Toomey said, if Fetterman, who is recovering from a stroke he experienced in May, is unable to communicate, then he wouldn’t be an effective senator.
“If he’s not able to engage with the press, if he’s not able to engage with his colleagues, he would not be able to do the job,” Toomey said. “I wish him all the best in his recovery, but if he won’t debate Dr. Oz because he can’t debate, then he should just say so.”
Tomey said Fetterman sits at home on social media all day. “He raises tons of money from liberals in California and New York, and he uses it to buy TV ads. He does very few public events and he doesn’t take questions from the press,” Toomey said.
“We have said repeatedly that we’re open to debating Oz,” Fetterman campaign spokesman Joe Calvello said Tuesday in a statement. Calvello said Fetterman marched for two hours in Pittsburgh’s Labor Day parade and spoke at two other events afterward. He said anyone who has seen Fetterman speak knows that, while he’s still recovering, he’s more capable of fighting for Pennsylvania than Oz would ever be.
“This isn’t about debates,” Calvello said. “This is about mocking John for having a stroke because they’ve got nothing else.”