NBC’s Mitchell: Fetterman Had ‘Difficulty’ That ‘We Haven’t Seen’

During an interview with Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) on Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” host Andrea Mitchell stated that U.S. Senate candidate and Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) had “difficulty” that “we haven’t seen” in “other interviews and in live appearances with voters” during his debate on Tuesday night with his opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz (R).

Mitchell said, “We saw a very slick performance from a TV doctor, a celebrity doctor, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who was not answering a lot of questions and getting a lot of the facts wrong, but certainly performed. Then you saw, of course, John Fetterman recovering from a stroke — a life-threatening stroke five months ago. And in this format, having difficulty, difficulty we haven’t seen, frankly, in other interviews and in live appearances with voters.”

Mitchell also asked Casey if he thinks Fetterman’s campaign “made a mistake by letting him debate in this format? Because in 15 seconds for rebuttal, for instance, you can’t even get that closed captioning rolling in time for him to read it, absorb it, and answer. So, I’m not sure — a lot of people have said, well, why did they even agree to this?”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett