Fetterman Campaign Blames Captioning System For His Incoherent Performance, Company Responds

The campaign for Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman has blamed captioning system used during Tuesday’s debate for his significant verbal struggles.

Throughout the debate, Fetterman repeatedly fumbled his words and spoke incoherently. Fetterman even had an outburst at the end of the debate during which he shouted at his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz.

“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 for Pennsylvania communications director Joe Calvello claimed. “John won countless exchanges, counter-punched aggressively, and pushed back on Oz’s cruelty and attacks.”

In response, Nexstar’s Chief Communications Officer Gary Weitman revealed that the Fetterman campaign had agreed to use the system that was implemented during the debate and that Fetterman only participated in one of the practice sessions that the company offered.

“It is unfortunate that Mr. Fetterman is now criticizing the closed captioning process employed by Nexstar during tonight’s debate,” Weitman said. “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.”

“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,” Weitman continued. “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.”