In the days leading up to the debate between Dr. Mehmet Oz and John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, the Democrat candidate’s campaign set out to lower expectations by anticipating awkward pauses and missed words:
“We are prepared for Oz’s allies and right-wing media to circulate malicious viral videos after the debate to try to paint John in a negative light because of awkward pauses, missing some words and mushing other words together.”
There were many reasons Fetterman’s campaign tried to lower expectations, and sure enough, you know what happened next.
However, now the Fetterman campaign is blaming the closed captioning system that assisted him last night:
“We are thrilled with John’s performance. He did remarkably well tonight – especially when you consider that he’s still recovering from a stroke and was working off of delayed captions filled with errors. John won countless exchanges, counter-punched aggressively, and pushed back on Oz’s cruelty and attacks,” Fetterman for Pennsylvania communications director Joe Calvello said.
Frankly we’re a bit surprised there wasn’t some blame reserved for climate change, but maybe they’ll get to that later.
The company that provided the closed captioning services denied any allegations that the problem was with the CC tech and not the candidate:
Statement from our parent company, @NXSTMediaGroup, in response to the @JohnFetterman campaign claiming he was “working off of delayed captions filled with errors” during last night’s Pennsylvania Senate debate on @NewsNation pic.twitter.com/PUT5ELfQ0C
— Robert Sherman (@RobertShermanTV) October 26, 2022
“Both candidates were offered the opportunity for two rehearsals with the same equipment used in tonight’s debate; Mr. Fetterman chose to do only one… Nexstar’s production team went to extraordinary lengths…to accommodate several last-minute requests of the Fetterman campaign.” https://t.co/vn3rV8tsYI
— Aron Goldman (@ArgoJournal) October 26, 2022
The Fetterman campaign throwing people under the bus for the candidate’s issues? That seems on brand.
https://twitter.com/soirchick/status/1585252756557770752
Here’s another Democrat that can’t fail, he can only be failed by somebody else.
The one filled with errors was Fetterman.
— He Multiplied Us (@hemultiplyus) October 26, 2022
Fetterman’s campaign needs to pick an angle:
Interesting that the Fetterman campaign is trying to blame closed captioning for their candidate's poor performance after they spent the first few hours after the debate bragging about how good Fetterman did. Both can't be true… https://t.co/Hyg9IsOrTP
— Abigail Marone 🇺🇸 (@abigailmarone) October 26, 2022
They would definitely appreciate it if people would believe that both can be true.
***
Related:
John Fetterman freezes up when confronted with his past comments about fracking
TIME senior correspondent lowers expectations of John Fetterman before televised debate
***
Editor’s Note:
Help us keep owning the libs! Join Twitchy VIP and use promo code AMERICAFIRST to receive a 25% discount off your membership!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member