Dr. Mehmet Oz (R) and Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) will face off in what portends to be a raucous debate tonight, Oct. 25. The Pennsylvania Senate race is a marquee contest that could determine the balance of power in the upper chamber, with several recent polls showing the two in a statistical dead heat. Oz continues to gain ground on Fetterman, who has turned out to be a surprisingly formidable opponent in contrast to the erudite TV doc whose talk of pricey crudités almost sank him. These two are – if nothing else – an odd pair, but if Oz has his wits about him, he will put Fetterman on the defensive and force him to address the following topics.
John Fetterman and Other People’s Money
Nothing about John Fetterman is linear or easy to explain. The 53-year-old identifies as a blue-collar progressive and former member of “Bernie’s Army.” However, his noblesse oblige ideology appears to be born out of his affluent upbringing, resulting from his father’s success as a partner in an insurance firm. This is not exactly a road less traveled, as there are plenty of trustafarian children bleating about socialism these days. Fetterman typifies these sons and daughters of successful capitalists who grow up and can’t wait to get their hands on other people’s money (OPM).
The Pennsylvania native is unusually adept at living off the largesse of his family and managed to sail through life on OPM until very recently. The Democratic senatorial hopeful spread his socialist wings with his parents footing the bill for the better part of his life, up until and during his 13-year stint as mayor of Braddock, PA. Then there was a little financial aid from a generous sister who sold Fetterman his home for the price of a Trading Places movie bet.
That would be the grand total of one dollar.
What About Braddock?
Braddock is a woeful tale of a once-proud community that now lies derelict and in economic ruin, largely destroyed by decades of public policy that outsourced the production of steel to China and Japan. Named after British General Edward Braddock, who commanded the American colonies in the French and Indian War, the borough was established in the late 19th century by industrialist Andrew Carnegie. The latter built the famed Edgar Thomson Steel Works just north of the working-class town. Known to locals as the Mon Valley Works due to its location at the headwaters of the Monongahela River, Braddock once boasted a population of more than 20,000. A bustling and charming place, it had the distinction of being the location of the first public library built by Carnegie.
(Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
The declining American steel industry sucked up Braddock in its wake so that by the time John Fetterman became mayor the population had dropped to just under 3,000. It became a high-crime, desolate skeleton that the young Fetterman thought he could fix. In his first campaign for mayor against incumbent Pauline Abdullah, the young idealist won by a single vote in the Democratic primary. There was no Republican opposition, so Fetterman walked to victory. It would be the first of four terms he would serve as mayor.
But the Fetterman years were not prosperous ones for Braddock, and when he left for higher office, the borough was no better – some say worse off – than when he got there. As one longtime Pittsburgh resident told Liberty Nation, “People weren’t exactly rushing to Braddock when he was mayor.” However, an interesting side note caused a brief stir during Fetterman’s tenure in the struggling town.
(Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
Mayor John and His Shotgun
It’s not anything you’ll find on page one of a Google search on Fetterman, but when Mayor John pointed his 20-gauge shotgun at a Braddock man one fine day in 2013, a surprisingly minor dust-up resulted.
As the story goes, Mayor Fetterman was out playing with his son when he heard what he believed to be the sound of gunfire. He quickly fingered young Christopher Miyares as the perpetrator. Miyares apparently committed the sin of jogging while black – hardly unusual since 71% of Braddock’s residents were African American, according to the US Census Bureau.
Local TV station WTAE recorded the wildly different accounts of the incident:
Miyares: [He] followed me into North Braddock, pulled a shotgun, and aimed it at my chest.
WTAE reporter to Fetterman: Did you point the shotgun at him?
Fetterman: No, I did not. I pointed it in a way so that he would see that I was armed but I did not point it at him. In fact, I did not even have a round chambered or remove the safety at that point.
Miyares contends the Braddock police laughed off the incident. The only thing the young man was found to be armed with was a set of earbuds. He also told WTAE-TV that the sounds the mayor heard were bottle rockets. Charges were never filed, but the incident is indeed curious considering Fetterman’s history of being soft on crime.
The Lazy, Hazy Days of Lt. Gov.
Fast forward to 2017, and the mayor of Braddock sought greener political pastures and declared himself a candidate for lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania against incumbent Mike Stack, who had troubles of his own and was considered a vulnerable Democrat at the time. Fetterman succeeded in the primary, winning 38% of the vote, became part of the Tom Wolf ticket, and sailed once again into office.
However, it wasn’t long before Fetterman’s lackadaisical attitude typified by a lackluster work ethic caught up with him. The Associated Press reported:
“Records from Fetterman’s four years in office, however, offer a different portrait of his time in the $179,000-a-year elected job. They show Fetterman typically kept a light work schedule and was often absent from state business, including presiding over the state Senate, which is one of his chief duties, according to an Associated Press review of his daily calendars and attendance records.
“The review found that Fetterman’s daily schedule was blank during roughly one-third of workdays from January 2019, when he first took office, to May this year, when he suffered a serious stroke. Even on days where his schedule showed he was active, a typical workday for Fetterman lasted between four and five hours, the records show.”
John Fetterman: A Different Kind of Democrat
John Fetterman (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)
On his campaign website, Fetterman publicizes himself in sizable bold print as “A different kind of Democrat.” With a six-foot-eight 325-pound frame and most often dressed in a hoodie, the Pennsylvania official has ostensibly embodied that claim.
To further this atypical portrait, both of Fetterman’s arms are tattooed. The tat on his left forearm is the number 15104, the ZIP Code of Braddock. On the right are nine dates he says represent the homicides committed in the borough during his tenure as mayor.
The reason for the much-discussed hoodie has remained relatively mysterious. Although the news media have generally ignored this issue, a photo in GQ magazine shows a large abnormality at the base of Fetterman’s neck. Neither the senatorial candidate nor his campaign has made a connection between the prominent lump and a stroke he suffered on May 15 – two days before the primary.
When the Klieg lights go on tonight in Pennsylvania, Dr. Oz would be wise to exploit these areas of John Fetterman’s tenure as Braddock mayor, including the bizarre shotgun incident and his languid work ethic as lieutenant governor. However, considering Oz is a physician, hammering away at the stroke will only make him appear callous. Still, plenty of topics regarding Fetterman’s long history of public service in the Keystone State are worth challenging in a public debate.
