Biden thinks Fetterman "impressive, capable" after stroke

AP Photo/Matt Rourke

If there is anybody you should trust to judge the mental capabilities of a brain damaged person, it would be Joe Biden. His perspicacity is legendary.

The word from the White House is that Biden is impressed by Fetterman’s grasp of the issues, and that he has demonstrated that he is very capable post-stroke.

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These great insights were shared with us by Biden’s Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre from the podium, having been asked by a reporter what the White House thinks of the Pennsylvania Senate candidate, who has been struggling to speak coherently as he campaigns around the state.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that President Biden regards Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman as an “impressive individual” who is “just as capable as always.”

Jean-Pierre was asked whether President Biden, who is scheduled to appear with the lieutenant governor later this week, had concerns about Fetterman’s health following his stroke earlier this year.

“The president has found him to be an impressive individual … who’s just as capable as always and who’s carrying out his office,” Jean-Pierre said, adding that Fetterman was serving the people of Pennsylvania as Lt. Gov. “with great ability and for concern.”

“So yes, the president feels that he is very much capable of doing the job,” Jean-Pierre said, noting that Biden and Fetterman have had “many interactions” over the past several months.

Well, one could say that Biden is carrying out his office as well, despite having had his brain turn to something resembling oatmeal. So it is unsurprising that Slow Joe sees a reflection of himself in Fetterman.

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However I am not sure that the voters of Pennsylvania will be reassured by Joe’s hearty endorsement of Fetterman’s mental health. After all, according to this weekend’s Harvard/Harris poll voters are pretty clear that they think the president has lost a step or three over the years and is no longer fit to be president. If the man judging the fitness of a candidate to serve is unfit himself, it’s probably not a huge plus in the “win” column.

The Democrats and the media are struggling mightily to carry Fetterman across the finish line–to the extent that they attacked their own colleague NBC reporter Dasha Burns for reporting that Fetterman struggles in personal conversation. The piling on was brutal.

Yet The Atlantic this weekend confirmed the obvious: Fetterman is struggling post-stroke.

An article in The Atlantic essentially confirmed NBC journalist Dasha Burns’ widely disputed claim that Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman appears to have problems making conversation without the use of closed captioning, noting he had difficulty responding “meaningfully” to voter questions.

In a Sunday piece headlined, “Do Voters Care About John Fetterman’s Stroke?,” Atlantic staff writer Elaine Godfrey noted that Fetterman “still struggles to process the words that he hears, and sometimes he can’t quite express what he means” five months after he suffered a stroke.

She also noted that his wife Gisele, who a Rolling Stone writer called a “de facto” candidate last week, generally led interactions with voters.

“Fetterman sounds a lot more like his old self now than he did in August, when he first returned to the campaign trail. But he still stumbles in his speech. At a rally I attended outside Philadelphia last weekend, he delivered a few applause lines and phrases that were difficult to understand; occasionally, the audience would answer with tentative claps. After the event, Fetterman did not entertain questions from reporters, and seemed unable to respond all that meaningfully to on-the-fly comments from voters; his wife, Gisele, appeared to be the one leading those interactions,” Godfrey wrote. “But while Fetterman may not be able to do small talk, he is able to participate in interviews where he can use real-time closed-captioning, a live transcription of questions appearing on his laptop.”

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I am mystified by the Democrats choosing to stick with Fetterman after his stroke. In normal circumstances everybody would rally around a person suffering from a health crisis, but these are hardly normal circumstances. The Senate majority is in doubt for Democrats, and with only 100 senators in the entire body every seat counts. No one candidate has the right to run–it is a privilege granted by the parties and the voters. He could have been replaced, and should have.

Just as a failing Joe Biden would have been wished well by both Democrats and Republicans were he not the president who is destroying the country, the same holds for Fetterman.

Suffering from health issues is something we can all related to and sympathize with, but demanding to have a prominent role in running the country with a damaged brain is selfish and destructive to both the country and one’s own political party. Joe is destroying the Democrats, and Fetterman is likely to lose his bid for the Senate due to a demand that he be the candidate no matter the circumstances.

Of course I am glad that Republicans are being aided by Fetterman’s actions, but I can’t help being disappointed in him as a person. He is being selfish, arrogant, and disloyal to his party.

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