From that profile of Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman in New York magazine:
“I’m so profoundly grateful,” Fetterman told me of his recovery during an early-October interview. We spoke using Google Meet, because the stroke had made it difficult for him to process what he hears; the video chat has closed-captioning technology that allowed him to read my questions in real time. “But running for the Senate, in the biggest race in the country, and having to recover at the same time is unprecedented.”
Fetterman and his Republican opponent Mehmet Oz do not debate until October 25, two weeks before Election Day – after some as-yet-undetermined number of Pennsylvania voters, but probably a small minority, will have already cast their ballots and returned them by mail.
The editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette is reminding its readers that Fetterman ignored its recommendation that he release his medical records:
By not releasing his medical records, however, Fetterman is elevating their importance and generating suspicions that may be entirely unwarranted. Fetterman’s failure to release his medical records has allowed Oz to make Fetterman’s health a major campaign issue.
Fetterman also is showing a fundamental lack of faith in people’s ability to put health into perspectives and fairly decide his overall fitness for office.
Fetterman has deflected calls by Oz to release his medical records by arguing that Oz’s positions and policies are more important than his health records. Well, of course they are. And the best way Fetterman can ensure that voters don’t get distracted from important policy questions is by releasing his medical records.
(Considering how after being diagnosed with a heart condition, Fetterman stopped taking his medication and didn’t see any doctor for five years until his stroke, he may not have that many records to share.)
In that debate two weeks from last night, either Fetterman will look, sound, and appear fine, or he will come across as a man who still has a long recovery ahead of him, and who is likely to struggle with the routine duties of a senator. If Fetterman looks good, some Pennsylvanians will wonder what the fuss was about, why he only agreed to one debate, and why he wanted it so late in the campaign. If Fetterman looks bad, some Pennsylvanians will conclude that the candidate is not well, and that he and his campaign have never been honest about his condition, going back to the initial characterization of his life-threatening stroke as “a little hiccup.”