President Biden on Thursday said John Fetterman’s wife Gisele would make a “great lady in the Senate” in an awkward stumble amid questions over the Senate candidate’s health after a stroke.
“John, thank you very much for running, I really do appreciate it,” Mr. Biden said at an event in Pittsburgh. “And Gisele, you’re going to be a great, great lady in the Senate.”
Mr. Fetterman, who is in a tight race for Pennsylvania’s open seat in the U.S. Senate against Republican Mehmet Oz, has come under increasing scrutiny since a stroke left him with auditory processing issues and raised questions about his ability to hold office.
The Democrat insists he is up to the task.
Mrs. Fetterman has come to her husband’s defense when attacked by his political opponents over his health.
Last week Mrs. Fetterman said there should be “consequences” against NBC News reporter Dasha Burns after the outlet ran a story in which she revealed that Mr. Fetterman relied on transcription software to help him process questions before responding verbally.
Ms. Burns said that before the interview, when Mr. Fetterman was not using the software, “it wasn’t clear that he was understanding our conversation.”
Mrs. Fetterman called her reporting “ableist” and said Ms. Burns was discriminating against her husband.
“What a disservice that she did to not only my husband, but to anyone facing a disability and working through it,” she told Fast Politics host Molly Jong-Fast. “I don’t know how there were not consequences. I mean, there are consequences for folks in these positions who are any of the -isms. I mean, she was ableist, and that’s what she was in her interview.”
Some said Thursday’s gaffe by Mr. Biden, 79, was more a reflection of his own waning mental acuity rather than that of Mr. Fetterman.
“Biden’s dementia often has him blurt out what his handlers are planning,” former Trump Treasury Department official Monica Crowley wrote on Twitter. “Here he is, telling Fetterman’s wife that she’ll be ‘a great, great lady in the Senate.’”
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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