Oz Mocks Fetterman’s Health in Spat Over Pennsylvania Debate

John Fetterman, the Democratic Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, said Tuesday he won’t debate rival Mehmet Oz next week, saying he’s still recovering from a stroke and calling Oz’s attempts to challenge him to a face-to-face encounter a “farce.”

The debate over debates is a well-worn ritual of US politics, with the trailing candidate usually seeking more debates in hopes of forcing an opponent into a poor performance. Fetterman, the state’s lieutenant governor, leads Oz by 9 percentage points in the FiveThirtyEight average of polls despite being largely absent from the campaign trail following pacemaker surgery in May.