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words together. but it knocked me down but i m going to keep coming back up. i ve visited vocational schools, i didn t visit it with john, because obviously it wasn t clear enough for you to understand this. there s no way around it, john fetterman s health was the big issue last night in pennsylvania and he and dr. oz faced off in the only debate for the state s senate seat. we re going to have much more on the this consequential showdown, next. plus, democrats are now bracing for a possible red wave. and it even appears that strongholds could be in jeopardy. and president joe biden shares his thoughts on the midterms saying americans face a choice and the stakes could be higher. good morning. and welcome to way too early. on this wednesday, october 26th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. pennsylvania voters saw their candidates for u.s. senate side by side last night for the one and only debate in the high-stakes race. lieutenant gov ....
And only debate in the high-stakes race. lieutenant governor john fetterman has led his republican opponent throughout the race, mehmet oz, and now by more than eight points. but that edge had evaporated over the last few weeks. the race now all locked up. fetterman continues to deal with the effects of a stroke he suffered in may which was evident in his performance last night. his campaign says he has trouble processing what he hears. so there were two monitors placed behind the debate moderators, one with the debate questions and another with oz s answers. fetterman used his first response to address what he called, quote, elephant in the room. at times he clearly struggled. hi. good night, everybody. i m running to serve pennsylvania. he s running to use pennsylvania. here s a man that spent more than $20 million of his own money to try to buy that seat. i m also having to talk about ....
And folks in the political scene, why did he do this? fetterman. why did he decide to debate. it was obviously going to showcase the lingering effects from the stroke. listen, i think he would have gotten criticism even if he had skipped it. this was a no-win situation for fetterman. seems like they were banking on sympathy and understanding from pennsylvania voters that he s obviously struggling from this. people struggle from all sorts of problems with speech and health. i think they were banking on the fact that people would understand that. we ll have to see, there was an early poll that came out last night, pittsburgh situation suggested that oz won the debate handily, something like 80/20, something of that nature. so, i mean, listen, fetterman was holding on to a very tenuous lead. and i imagine the race will tighten in the days ahead. oz seemed to almost come off as a bully. we should stress, though, fetterman s doctors say he will ....
Reporter for ax see ya axios. and let s go back to pennsylvania, you got new reporting on what lawmakers are reacting to what they saw from fetterman and oz. tell us. yeah, jon, i spoke to a lot of people on capitol hill, pennsylvania democratic insiders as well i think critics and supporters alike really were worried about fetterman s performance last night. are concerned that it only adds to many voters views that maybe he might not be fit to serve. i think a lot of democrats did give him credit for showing up, but he did stumble a lot. he had trouble with a lot of his answers. you know, a lot of people pointed out that neither fetterman nor dr. oz have ever really been skilled debaters or seen as that in the fast. even before fetterman ....
Experienced his stroke. and i think last night, though, however, it really detracted from some of the answers. that s what i m hearing from a lot of lawmakers. i think how much will this have an impact on the race? with a statistical tie in polling and a few weeks to go to election day, a lot of people saying don t give too much credence to the debates. i do think there was attention on this, yes, because of this race being close but also because of fetterman s health. people are concerned this may raise more questions than answered them. the debate comes late in the cycle. fetterman has had a lead throughout. and yeah, polls tightening and only more so. alena, the race is 50/50, democrats have had a strong summer. there are hopes they could maybe ....