Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman asked for close captioning to do a media interview while he continues to recover from a stroke. So what, writes columnist ConnieSchultz. Why do we keep failing disable people?
As he continues to recover, Fetterman used Google Meets to read the spoken questions of NBC News reporter Dasha Burns because he cannot always process what is being said to him. This auditory disconnect is not an uncommon response to a stroke in the early months and does not mean he can't do the job.
Just as rapidly, other journalists took issue with this framing of Fetterman, including Rebecca Traister, whoa recent, deeply reported profile of Fetterman for New York magazine. In her story, she criticized how the “political press” was parroting unfounded attacks on Fetterman’s health by the campaign of his Republican opponent, Mehmet Oz.
Of course, she wanted that for her father. McCain understood what every family member of a senator knows. A political campaign is different from daily life in the Senate, and no senator navigates that job alone. Some of the most intelligent and talented people I’ve met work for senators, including Sherrod. The most experienced of these people could easily make two and even three times their salaries in the corporate world, but they choose lives of public service.
Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk had a stroke in 2012 but remained in the Senate until he was defeated by Tammy Duckworth, who lost both her legs in the war in Iraq. An accidental shooting paralyzed Rhode Islander Jim Langevin when he was 16. In 2001, he became the first quadriplegic to serve in Congress and is retiring this year. More recently, Madison Cawthorn became the first person born in the 1990s to be elected to Congress, in 2020.
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