In a monologue under the headline “painful to watch,” MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell on Wednesday compared Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill because they faced health issues; he even brought up former VP Dick Cheney.
The Tuesday night debate between senate candidates John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz resulted in a burst of headlines over Oz’s abortion stance and Fetterman’s struggles during his continuing recovery from a serious stroke earlier this year. Not to mention a dispute over the quality of the closed caption system Fetterman relied on to understand the questions and Oz’s responses.
Many in media have taken pains post-debate to stress that they are not questioning Fetterman’s competence, comprehension, or ability to undertake the responsibilities of office, which perceived implication the campaign has shown a willingness to attack the media over.
MSNBC’s O’Donnell on Wednesday night expressed his outrage at media and citizens remarking on Fetterman’s condition, particularly on Twitter.
In his monologue, he recounted illnesses faced by Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt at length, and told the story of an 11-year-old girl who witnessed FDR in a wheelchair but did not go on Twitter to remark about it. He listed several other people, including perennial presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, before getting to Cheney.
In recounting Cheney’s many heart attacks, O’Donnell described a close call surgery that, had it not gone well, “would have made Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert the next in line for the presidency.”
“Years later,” he continued, “Dennis Hastert went to prison after confessing to the sexual abuse of high school kids when he was a high school wrestling coach.”
It is not immediately clear how that particular example argues in favor of the position that a politician’s condition “should be respected,” but O’Donnell returned to his overall argument as he was wrapping up the monologue.
“The Senate is a deliberative body. Senators never have to make quick, irreversible decisions. They can take their time and think about each vote they cast in the Senate, and they usually cast their votes in accordance with the positions they have taken in their campaigns,” he said.
Fetterman is back on the campaign trail, post-debate, and at a rally hit back at people who discussed his stroke recovery.
His Republican opponent, meanwhile, weighed in on the dispute over the closed captions, offering a second debate opportunity to the Democrat.
Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.
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