Mehmet Oz Admits John Fetterman's Health Shouldn't Stop Him From Running

U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz said in an interview published Friday that those with temporary disabilities should still be able to serve in office, after his campaign mocked his opponent, Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, who suffered a stroke in May.

Fetterman, a Democrat, has been recovering from auditory processing and speech issues. The Oz campaign has repeatedly gone after Fetterman over his health condition.

Oz, a celebrity heart surgeon who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, trails Fetterman in recent polls as they compete for a key Senate seat in Pennsylvania being vacated by retiring Republican Pat Toomey.

In August, the Oz campaign released a list of concessions the Republican candidate would make for a September debate. It said it would pay for "additional medical personnel" Fetterman would need "on standby" and that, at any point, Fetterman could raise his hand and say "bathroom break."

That month, Fetterman declined to debate Oz after the release of the concessions list,saying that the Oz campaign "made it abundantly clear that they think it is funny to mock a stroke survivor. I chose not to participate in this farce."

Oz and Fetterman are scheduled to debate for the first time on October 25.

In August, a senior communications adviser to Oz, Rachel Tripp, told Insider that if Fetterman "had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn't have had a major stroke and wouldn't be in the position of having to lie about it constantly." The statement came after the Oz campaign had been criticized after posting a video of the Republican candidate complaining about inflation and the prices needed for crudité ingredients.

During an NBC interview, journalist Dasha Burns pressed Oz on his campaign's comments about Fetterman's health.

"You're a doctor, you're a heart doctor, you of all people understand what John Fetterman is going through, better than most. Why would you allow your campaign to mock him like that?" she asked.

"I have tremendous compassion for what John Fetterman's going through....The campaign has been difficult for both teams. I'm looking forward to talking to John Fetterman face to face about both of our staffs when we're on that stage," Oz said. "I've never met the man, the two of us are vying to represent the people of Pennsylvania and I've never been able to look to him eye to eye and talk about the real substantive issues that are causing pain in Pennsylvania."

"This is your campaign right? These are your employees. Doesn't the buck stop with you? Isn't that what a leader accepts?" Burns asked.

"Oh, I accepted responsibility, and I deal with issues as they come up, but he has his own set of issues," Oz replied. "And I think we need to look, again, eye to eye and say, 'Here's what we're going to do going forward.' We should have had a debate already."

The first debate in the race is scheduled to take place on October 25.

Burns later asked Oz: "Do you believe that someone with a disability, a temporary disability like this, can't serve, can't be a senator?"

"I think people with disabilities can serve and they should serve. I would never hold that against anybody. The issue for me is the voters of Pennsylvania deserve transparency," Oz said, noting that Fetterman hasn't released his medical records.

J. Wesley Leckrone, a professor of political science at Widener University, told Newsweek on Friday that he doesn't believe Oz is walking back his campaign's criticism of Fetterman's health, but that his comments were instead a "way in which you want to appear to be a bit softer and more empathetic while you're in an interview as opposed to being in a campaign ad. Republicans are finally starting to fall in line behind Oz. It's going to tighten the race."

While polling shows Fetterman with a lead, his advantage has shrunk in recent days.

"Anything that Oz can use to be able to perhaps flip people in swing areas—particularly in Philadelphia suburbs—anything that he can use to show that Fetterman might not be a competent politician is going to be necessary going down the line here to be able to capture those those couple of swing voters," Leckrone added.

Newsweek reached out to the Oz and Fetterman campaigns for comment.

On Wednesday, Benjamin Abella, director of the Center for Resuscitation Science at the University of Pennsylvania and a professor in emergency medicine, said Fetterman is "recovering very well" from the stroke and criticized Oz and his campaign over their comments on his health condition.

"Who amongst us do not have family members who've had strokes, heart attacks, cancer, other medical conditions?" Abella asked. "Do we shame them? What's wrong with these people?"