Well, it didn’t take long for John Fetterman’s campaign to make excuses for his bumbling performance in Tuesday night’s debate with Dr. Mehmet Oz.
In a blatantly transparent attempt to make excuses for his candidate’s shoddy performance, Fetterman’s communications director, Joe Calvello, feigned praise for Fetterman after the debate, while also criticizing the closed caption system that they had insisted be implemented in the debate.
“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,” Calvello said.
But, both candidates were reportedly given a chance to test the system twice—and Fetterman’s campaign didn’t seem to have any problems with the system when they rehearsed with it.
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“It is unfortunate that Mr. Fetterman is now criticizing the closed captioning process employed by Nexstar during tonight’s debate,” Nexstar communications chief Gary Weitman said in a statement. “Both candidates agreed to the technical set-up for the closed captioning process weeks ago, which was implemented at the request of the Fetterman campaign. Both candidates were offered the opportunity for two full rehearsals with the same equipment used in tonight’s debate; Mr. Fetterman chose to do only one.”
Weitman also added that Nexstar went above and beyond for Fetterman and ensured that the system effectively accommodated his needs.
“In fact, Nexstar’s production team went to extraordinary lengths to ensure the effectiveness of the closed captioning process, and to accommodate several last-minute requests of the Fetterman campaign,” Weitman said. “The closed captioning process functioned as expected during rehearsal and again during tonight’s debate. We regret that Mr. Fetterman and his campaign feel otherwise.”
It’s obvious that Fetterman’s campaign realizes he had a terrible night. They are not only being disingenuous about how “well” he did, they’re attacking the system they insisted be used because they know Fetterman bombed the debate.
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