Fetterman Blames Closed Captioning System for Debate Train Wreck, Debate Host Drops Bomb in Response
I can’t honestly blame the Fetterman camp for trying. I mean, they had to say something.
Last night’s debate between Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and his Republican challenger in the Senate race, Dr. Mehmet Oz, was an unmitigated disaster for the Democrats, but it’s not like Fetterman can just roll up into the fetal position and hide under the covers until Nov. 9.
But … I’m not sure blaming the media is the way I would have gone.
“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,” Fetterman’s campaign communications director Joe Calvello told NewsNation shortly after the debate. “John won countless exchanges, counter-punched aggressively, and pushed back on Oz’s cruelty and attacks.”
I’m not sure what “cruelty and attacks” Calvello meant, but on the other hand, I’m not sure he does either. If you’re capable of seeing Fetterman’s debate performance as anything but a train wreck, you’re probably not all that closely tuned in to reality to begin with.
Calvello was probably hoping that the establishment media would give his candidate a little cover, as they usually do for Democrats. It didn’t quite work out that way.
“It is unfortunate that Mr. Fetterman is now criticizing the closed captioning process employed by Nexstar during tonight’s debate,” said Gary Weitman, chief communications officer for Nexstar, which owns NewsNation. NewsNation hosted the debate, which included closed captioning at the request of the Fetterman campaign, as an accommodation for the fact that their candidate is still recovering from a stroke he suffered in May.
“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,” Weitman said. “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.”
“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. 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.”
Whoops.
Blaming people who can demonstrate that you failed to take full advantage of opportunities to prepare your candidate adequately is probably not a strong strategy. Of course, letting Fetterman debate was probably not the strongest strategy in the first place.
Democrats are asking the same thing post-debate: Why did Fetterman’s team allow him to take the stage tonight? No one I’m talking to on the left has a good thing to say about what just took place.
— Al Weaver (@alweaver22) October 26, 2022
I spoke to Fetterman recently, and I expected him to be very bad tonight. But he was much much worse than I expected (and much worse than in our one-on-one conversation.)
— Charlotte Alter (@CharlotteAlter) October 26, 2022
However, as Politico pointed out this morning, Fetterman’s actual performance in the debate is probably less important than how the campaign can spin it for a compliant, left-leaning media.
“There are two well-worn cliches about debates: (1) They are rarely won but can sometimes be lost. (2) They are decided by the coverage in subsequent days rather than on debate night itself,” Politico wrote.
Fetterman clearly didn’t distinguish himself last night, so the question turns to how well the campaign can message what he said after the fact.
So far, Fetterman’s camp may have succeeded only in making themselves look worse.
But like I said: I can’t really blame them for trying.
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