Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman pushed back on criticism of his NBC interview which used closed captioning. He recently announced that because of his stroke in May, he now has difficulty with auditory processing.
REPORTER: “Will you be releasing updated information from your doctor on your health before November 8th?”
FETTERMAN: “I would say that if there was anything that changed or whatever, I absolutely would have updated that you know, other than the progress that I've made, it's evident. Now, I certainly wouldn't be able to sit in front of you back in May or in June, you know, or July because they were covered in that kind of recovery that I need in order to be absolutely whatever getting better and better. And I think the ultimate kinds of transparency is to be in front of thousands of people on a stage, not using a teleprompter. Most often kinds of politicians use a teleprompter but nobody wonders if he or she is able to do the job or anything like that. And it's simply about that, that's how that's the kind of campaign that I've run on. I've always been very honest about saying I need captioning. In fact, they just did an in-depth conversation on NBC and I let them know, here is the captioning. I'm doing captioning with all of you right now because I know that you're speaking and sometimes I will hear it, but if I'm asking for a very specific kind of question, I need to know exactly what that is. And I'd point out that if somebody wants to hold that against me, they’ll regret that. But the truth is, you know, half of Americans watch TV with using captions too. And my speech therapist also believes that is going to go away with me and I will be able to return to back being, you know, fully normal in that way. Of course, is that a guarantee? No. But it certainly, that's part of what usually happens with anyone that has these kind of circumstances and conditions.”
