Democrat John Fetterman took to the debate stage to duke it out against Republican Mehmet Oz, and Fetterman fell flat on his face.
"Media figures and conservatives reacted to Democrat John Fetterman’s debate performance against Republican Mehmet Oz during the debate on Tuesday night, calling it a 'sad' disaster," reported Breitbart.
"Fetterman had a poor showing during the debate, mostly due to his speech disabilities stemming from a stroke earlier this year," Breitbart News reported. "Routinely, Fetterman struggled to give coherent responses to moderator questions as he confused words and paused awkwardly."
Charlotte Alter, a reporter from TIME called the debate a "disaster."
so far this is a disaster for Fetterman
— Charlotte Alter (@CharlotteAlter) October 26, 2022
I spoke to Fetterman recently, and I expected him to be very bad tonight. But he was much much worse than I expected (and much worse than in our one-on-one conversation.)
— Charlotte Alter (@CharlotteAlter) October 26, 2022
Additionally, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough called it "painful."
This is painful to watch regardless of one’s politics.
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) October 26, 2022
Comments about the awful event continued to come from other reporters and media figures.
There is no amount of empathy for and understanding about Fetterman’s health and recovery that changes the fact that this is absolutely painful to watch.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) October 26, 2022
This Fetterman-Oz debate is absolutely shocking. @DashaBurns was the only reporter who told the truth about Fetterman’s state. But it is so much worse than inability to track smalltalk. It is painful to watch this.
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) October 26, 2022
Yeah, this sums it up.
Oz was as contemptible as we'd expect, although he was smart enough not to say anything direct about Fetterman's difficulties speaking.
But given his physical limitations (which won't impact him in the Senate) Fetterman should never have agreed to do this https://t.co/Wf5bePenPC— Mitchell Plitnick 🔥🕎 (@MJPlitnick) October 26, 2022
Former White House Press Secretary and Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer weighed in with his thoughts.
"I just started to watch the Oz-Fetterman debate. Fetterman is incredibly inarticulate. This is really something," Fleischer said.
I just started to watch the Oz-Fetterman debate.
Fetterman is incredibly inarticulate. This is really something.
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) October 26, 2022
"The PA debate was one of the saddest political spectacles I've ever seen. I totally disagree with #Fetterman's politics, but you'd have to be heartless if you didn't feel terrible watching his cognitive impairment. It was like watching a car crash in slow motion," said podcaster Todd Schnitt.
Obviously, it was a bad day for Fetterman, and it might have just cost him the election.
To read this full story and see many, many more tweets about how bad the debate was, click here.