Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman rejected Dr Mehmet Oz’s offer to hold a debate in Pennsylvania the first week of September, while simultaneously shaming the celebrity doctor for continuing to “mock” his recovery from a stroke.
The Oz campaign, the Democrat blasted, has made it “abundantly clear that they think it is funny to mock a stroke survivor.”
“I will not be participating in a debate the first week of September, but look forward to having a productive discussion about how we can move forward and have a real conversation on this once Dr. Oz and his team are ready to take this seriously,” he added.
In May, Mr Fetterman was forced to put his public-facing campaigning on hold after suffering from a stroke, a major brain event that his medically certified opponent has seemed to latch onto as a political weakness rather than a legitimate health concern.
Recently, however, Mr Fetterman has returned to attending in-person campaign events in his bid for the open Senate seat in Pennsylvania, where he currently holds the position of lieutenant governor.
On Tuesday morning, however, the doctor-turned-TV-celebrity’s campaign released a list of “concessions” that it would be willing to make if Mr Fetterman agreed to a debate between the two Senate candidates, continuing with its ongoing effort to troll the Democrat for his absence on the campaign trail because of his health.
“We will pay for any additional medical personnel he might need to have on standby,” the campaign wrote, seeming to prod at Mr Fetterman’s recent stroke episode.
The debate, which was pitched to be run live during the first week of September on KDKA-TV, would be the first held in the Pennsylvania Senate race, which has proven to become a closely watched affair given the high-profile status of the Trump-endorsed celebrity running on the GOP ticket and the possibility that the winner could tip the Senate chamber one way or another.
Recent polling places the Democrat at a slight advantage, according to surveys from Emerson College and Franklin and Marshall College.
Mr Fetterman continued with his admonishment of his opponent online on Tuesday by relying on the simple but effective art of the meme.
While retweeting a quote from Dr Oz on the radio where he largely pinned the blame of the stroke comments on his campaign and took no personal responsibility, Mr Fetterman shared a commonly used Drake meme that shows the hip-hop artist wagging his finger in disapproval at the words, “making fun of strokes” and smiling in approval at the words “others making fun of strokes”.
In terms of fundraising, the Fetterman campaign announced earlier this month that the Democrat had actually benefited from one of his opponent’s own videos put out in an attempt to slander the Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor.
Mr Fetterman’s campaign manager Brendan McPhillips said on 16 August that his team raised half a million dollars in the 24 hours after Dr Oz posted a widely ridiculed video of himself shopping for crudité at a Pennsylvania grocery store where he mispronounced the franchise’s name and misstated the price of produce.
The two candidates will face off during the November midterms, where the winner will fill the seat of retiring Republican Senator Pat Toomey, who was one of seven Republicans who voted to convict former president Donald Trump for his role in the 6 January Capitol riot.
