Today, Explained - Fettermania

Episode Date: October 7, 2022

John Fetterman, the 6-foot-8, hoodie and cargo shorts-wearing Democratic candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania, may be the model for how progressives can win elections. He just needs to beat Dr. Oz. This episode was reported and produced by Miles Bryan, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Cristian Ayala and Paul Robert Mounsey, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Democrats are pinning their hopes to hold on to the Senate on a big old boy from Pennsylvania. Not my words. Elect that big old boy to be governor. Uh, no, sir. He's running for senator. But you're right. He is big. People have been trying to label me my entire life. I do not look like a typical politician. I don't even look like a typical person. And this Pennsylvania Senate race is kind of wild. Heart surgeon versus stroke. Crudite versus Carhartt. New Jersey versus Braddock. Dr. Oz versus John Fetterman. How Pennsylvania's big old boy

could upend progressive American politics, coming up on today's Flank. If we work hard, if we behave, so the graduations hang on the wall. The all-new FanDuel Sportsbook and Casino is bringing you more action than ever. Want more ways to follow your faves? Check out our new player prop tracking with real-time notifications. Or how about more ways to customize your casino page with our new favorite and recently played games tabs. And to top it all off, quick and secure withdrawals. Get more everything with FanDuel Sportsbook and Casino.

Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600. Visit connectsontario.ca. Today Explained, Sean Ramos from here with Katie Meyer. She's a reporter at Spotlight PA, and she's been covering John Fetterman's campaign against Dr. Oz. And there's been plenty to cover, including maybe a new template for progressivism in the United States. Yes. The idea behind Fetterman's campaign is that he can cross the aisle in these ways that other politicians can't. And so you have him now charting this course that is populist and it's successful in a way that a lot of other Democrats haven't been able to achieve this marriage of progressive policy and working man, every man appeal.

Let's talk about Fetterman's origin story. Where does he come from? He's originally from York, Pennsylvania, which is like south central Pennsylvania. He grew up pretty upper middle class. He actually went to grad school at Harvard. He went to Harvard. Yes. So, yeah, not to bury that lead. He went to Harvard. He's this biker bar looking guy, but he has a graduate degree from Harvard. Yes. So, yeah, not to bury that lead. He went to Harvard. He's like, you know, he's this biker bar looking guy, but he has a graduate degree from Harvard. Is he like kind of like bizarro world Pete Buttigieg, someone who like always knew they wanted to be president one day,

but instead of being like, I don't know, this nebbish dude who plays piano and speaks 17 languages, he's like this hulking cargo shorts, tatted up dude who looks real working class. He's pretty different. Part of what he has always said about why he got into politics is that a very good friend of his died in a car accident. He didn't know what he wanted to do with his life at that point. And he ended up joining AmeriCorps, trying to get into some public service stuff. That's when he went back and he got the grad degree from Harvard. And then he moved to Braddock, Pennsylvania to work in a GED program. The collapse of the U.S. steel industry left this borough in the shadow of Pittsburgh in ruins. Trains don't stop here anymore. Storefronts are shuttered. Homes crumbling.

And very shortly after getting to Braddock in, like, the mid-aughts, he ran for mayor, and he won by one vote. He won it by one vote. And then he spent more than a decade as the mayor of Braddock. For those people who do remain in this small town, there is hope, and it comes in the form of a very large man. He became known in Braddock as the kind of guy

who, like, showed up at crime scenes. He was very, very involved in anti-violence initiatives. People would see him out directing traffic with, like, a traffic vest on. As mayor, he really promoted it. You know, he went on the late-night show or whatever Colbert's show was called at the time. When you say your town is open for urban experimentation,

are you taking part in these experiments? Because you look like you received a dose of gamma radiation. You're a big man. You're a big man. Thank you for noticing. There was like a 2011 New York Times article written about Fetterman, about Braddock. It was called Mayor of Rust. You know, national media loved it

because it's this big, interesting looking dude who's the mayor of this small town and actually the dude is really progressive. When you consider all the billions and billions that have been thrown at the banking industry, I think our community really cries out for, again, this whole notion of social justice and equity that's really been lost, I think, in these days. I should also say while he was Mayor of Braddock, there was this one incident that got a lot of attention. This was a time when, I think, in these days. I should also say, while he was mayor of Braddock, there was this one incident that got a lot of attention. This was a time when, you know, gun violence was pretty bad in the town. And Fetterman at one point said he thought he heard gunshots near his house. When he was out with his kid, he saw a guy running who he says he thought, you know, shot a gun.

It turned out to be an unarmed jogger who was black, who Fetterman detained with a shotgun. I believe I did the right thing, but I may have broken the law during the course of it. And, you know, I'm certainly not above the law if I did. But what I did, I did in a split second out of concern as the father and the mayor. And that's been a thing that dogged him a little bit, especially in the Democratic primary this cycle, where people were like, you know, that's crazy. That's a racist thing to have done. Fetterman says he didn't know the guy was even black. And so that's, again, been kind of a push and pull with other Democrats. But it's also worth noting the jogger, the Philadelphia Inquirer, tracked him down. And he was like, yeah, I would vote for Fetterman for U.S. Senate. I don't hold that against him. So sort of a mixed bag on that one.

Eventually, he graduates to lieutenant governor of the state of Pennsylvania. And obviously, that's a much bigger platform. What is his suite of policies? Yeah. So a couple of big ones, you know, as lieutenant governor, he's chaired the pardons board and has been very anti-mass incarceration, wants to make sure people who were incarcerated a long time ago have opportunities. The most common touchstone that I use to describe to people that have never experienced it is like, well, have you seen the Shawshank Redemption? And almost everybody has. And I'm like, well, most of these people are like Morgan Freeman's character.

It's like, if you think Morgan Freeman's character should have died in prison at the end of the movie, then I got nothing for you. He wants to legalize recreational marijuana. That's been a huge thing for him. Fetterman tweeting this morning, legal weed and PA. Pass it on. Big proponent of organized labor. There's this campaign refrain he's been using for years now. The union way of life is sacred.

He wants to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act in the Senate. He's pro-gun reform. He wants a red flag law, wants universal background checks. But also, he says he grew up with guns. You know, he's not anti-gun. He understands the value of having guns. As a gun owner myself, and an overwhelming super majority of gun owners want responsible gun ownership. Also really wants to make it clear that he doesn't want to defund

the police. He also over the course of his career he's kind of gotten more nuanced on fracking, on energy issues. He doesn't support a moratorium on fracking which a lot of progressives in Pennsylvania do. I believe that our party needs to honor the union way of life and safeguard these jobs and acknowledge that we must begin the transfer over to renewables as well. So it's a real grab bag of issues. But the through line, I think, is it's calibrated to appeal to progressive voters and to some more rural working class voters who don't identify as progressive. And that's, you know, the fundamental campaign strategy here. And where does that put him in, like, the spectrum of Democratic platforms in the party? Yeah, I think the way I like to look at it is like Democrats right now, because these parties are so divided, Republicans generally vote for Republicans,

Democrats generally vote for Democrats. But then the additional voters, those kind of X factor voters who determine the outcome of an election, they're a little different for Fetterman than they are for many Democrats. So you've seen nationally, like Joe Biden, when he was running for president, really aiming to get a coalition that included some moderate Republicans, people who wanted politics to feel more dignified and politics to feel reasonable again. And that was a big part of the Biden campaign, getting those moderates. Fetterman, what he's going for is a more of a disaffected voter, maybe an independent voter, maybe a voter who doesn't like politics as usual, feels unrepresented by a lot of mainstream politicians. And that's a very different group.

And I think that's a huge difference between him and other Democrats. Let's talk about the race. How does that position him against? Let me check my notes here. Dr. Oz. Pennsylvania needs a conservative who will put America first, one who can reignite our divine spark, bravely fight for freedom and tell it like it is.

Oh, yeah. So this, it's a weird race. It's a really weird race. I haven't seen anything really like it, so it's kind of hard to even analyze, like, how this is going. One of the strange things about it, other than just, like, you've got, you know, the big old boy and then TV doctor Mehmet Oz, is that not much of

the campaign has been run in person. Fetterman, you know, he led his primary from the beginning. I'll just say that he was pretty out front. He won every single county in the primary. Oz had a brutal primary. He barely got it. It took weeks to get the results because it was so close. And then in the last days of the primary, Fetterman had a massive stroke. John Fetterman, the now Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, is celebrating but also recovering in the hospital tonight after suffering a stroke on Friday

and being implanted with a pacemaker today. And he was out of commission for months. Basically, all summer, he's been off the campaign trail. He's had some aphasia. He's had some issues speaking, although his campaign says it's getting better. But, you know, he's been very active online. And so that's really where a lot of this campaign, especially over the summer, took place. What's he doing online? What's the ground game on Twitter.com?

The ground game on Twitter.com has mostly just been like aimed at making Dr. Oz look stupid, just dunking on him as much as he can. Like when he goes to the grocery store for what was it again? It was a crudités. Yeah. Crudités. That's right.

Yeah. That was a perfect example. Yeah. And for anyone who somehow hasn't seen it, Dr. Oz did this video actually ages ago and then Fetterman kind of brought it back where he was talking about grocery store prices he was at a Redner's grocery store but he like mixed it up with Wegmans and he called it

Wegner's thought it was a grocery shopping I'm at Wegner's and my wife wants some vegetables for crudite then he said he was buying crudite for his wife and like that included there's some asparagus that's four dollars yep carrots that's four dollars. Yep. Carrots. That's four more dollars. That's ten dollars of vegetables there. And then we need some guacamole. That's four dollars more. And like maybe tequila.

Guys, that's twenty dollars for crudités. This doesn't include the tequila. I mean, that's outrageous. And it didn't make very much sense. Fetterman kind of latched on to the idea that he called it crudités, not a veggie tray, which is what many, many working Pennsylvanians would call it, according to Fetterman. He's also been making fun of Dr. Oz for being from New Jersey. He paid Snooki from the TV show The Jersey Shore to make a video for Oz.

I heard that you moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to look for a new job. And personally, I don't know why anyone would want to leave Jersey because it's like the best place ever and we're all hot messes. But I want to say best of luck to you. So that's really what you've been seeing. He's not treating Oz like a serious candidate or a serious person. How's Dr. Oz hitting back, if at all?

So, yeah, I think initially, you know, him and his team maybe weren't completely ready to deal with this kind of unusual, very social media focused campaign. But what's now they've kind of changed their tone and what they've settled on, I think, is two things, two main lines of attack. First, you know, they're saying Fetterman is too sick from his stroke to be in the Senate. Oz's campaign releasing a statement Tuesday that said, if John Fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn't have had a major stroke. And then also Oz is really like he's been hammering Fetterman with ads. And this is not unique to Pennsylvania.

We've seen this in a lot of other states, but hammering him with ads claiming that he's soft on crime. John Fetterman wants to release convicted murderers from prison. We all know Fetterman loves free stuff, but we can't let him free murderers. And also I should say here, you know, Oz and Fetterman, they have not debated yet. They really haven't appeared together, but they do now have a debate on the calendar. That's October 25th. How big a deal do you think it would be if Fetterman could defeat Dr. Oz, win a Senate seat and help the Democrats potentially keep the Senate? It would be significant, I think, if Fetterman were to win because he's the kind of candidate

the Democrats haven't run very frequently. And Pennsylvania just always is worth paying attention to because it really mirrors the country as a whole. And so I would say a Fetterman win, what that would show is twofold. First of all, his image is really different than most Democrats. He really does have this populist appeal. He's a guy who tells it like it is,

that he's not very stage managed. There's an idea that he's speaking from the heart. And if he wins, I think it shows that people really want that and resonate with that. And then Fetterman policy wise, I think this is even more important. He's been able to get away from this thing that the Democrats have felt kind of compelled to do, which is split the difference politically. He's been pretty uncompromising on issues he cares about. Again, labor, prison reform, legalizing recreational marijuana. There's really been no gray area in what he thinks on that stuff.

And if he wins, I think on issues like that, it shows Democrats what's possible. And it might provide a blueprint for capturing a coalition they have trouble with, working class white voters who kind of left the party or started to leave the party under the Trump administration. That was Katie Meyer with Spotlight PA. It's a not-for-profit investigative newsroom. You can find her work at spotlightpa.org. How much that stroke might slow down John Fetterman around the corner on Today Explained. Support for Today Explained comes from Aura. Thank you. limited photos and videos directly from your phone to the frame. When you give an AuraFrame as a gift, you can personalize it, you can preload it with a thoughtful message, maybe your favorite photos.

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Today Explained, we're back. John Fetterman has the potential to be this game-changing candidate for the Democrats. His race could decide who gets to control the United States Senate. So his health, his post-stroke state, it really matters. So he sent our Philadelphia bureau chief, Miles Bryan, to check up on him. Miles? Yeah, so Fetterman was off the campaign trail for months recovering from his stroke. He's only relatively recently been doing campaign events again. So a couple of weeks back, I left my house in Philly and drove a few hours north to Scranton, PA to attend a Fetterman rally. Scranton? What's he doing in Scranton?

Well, Scranton has sort of an outsized rep for a couple of reasons. The biggest one is still probably because it's the setting of The Office. I've never seen the show. So whenever we play clips, I get to learn a little bit about the office. Yeah, it's actually it's very popular. It's on Netflix. You should check it out. But politically, the Scranton area is known for being a bellwether. Northeast Pennsylvania was a Democratic stronghold for decades.

It's where Joe Biden was born. Right. But Trump and Republicans made big inroads there in 2016 and to a lesser extent in 2020. And Fetterman's campaign slogan is every county, every vote. You know, like we just heard from Katie, he's really making a play to reach voters that other Democrats haven't or haven't in years. And I wanted to see that in action. And I also wanted to see just how much his stroke was affecting him and how that was landing with potential voters. Yeah, I want to hear about that. Tell us what you saw when you got to Scranton.

So it was held in a big sports arena in Scranton. About a thousand people showed up. You get inside and the soundtrack was extremely boomer political event. You know, a lot of Tom Petty bangers. It starts with speeches from a couple of other Pennsylvania politicians. Then Fetterman's wife, Giselle, takes the stage. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Giselle Baheith Fetterman, a proud advocate, a former dreamer,

and the second lady of Pennsylvania, or I like to be known as Slop. Slop. Everyone is always afraid to call me that. They think they're going to offend me, but I love it. It's so funny. Giselle is a big part of Fetterman's political brand. She's extremely popular. You know,

I talked to people who said they came out to see her just as much as they came out to see her husband. Huh? She's she's the Michelle Obama to his Barack. Yeah. OK, so once Slop got done talking, what did Fetterman have to say? Well... He takes the stage in his signature black hoodie. Lots of applause. Wow! Scranton! Scranton! He sounds a little out of breath. Hey, can...

Yeah, he just sounded off to me. Can I ask you a favor? Can we hear this? Can we hear this? Can we hear this loud enough so you know who can see that in New Jersey? That's sort of Fetterman's go-to joke on the trail. But as you could hear in that audio, he's not getting it out quite as smoothly as he would like.

And, you know, Katie told us that Fetterman's been recovering from a pretty serious stroke for a few months, and his campaign says he's doing really well. And the sort of auditory processing issues he's having don't indicate any problems with his, you know, cognition or thinking. But I was just surprised by how clear those issues still were in his speech. Before Dr. Oz came in, whoever heard the word coup de craze ever in their life? Coup de craze? He meant to say crudité. Yeah. Did the audience notice that he was off his game? You know, I was looking around and most people seemed totally unfazed. And then there was this moment in the speech where Fetterman addressed the effects of his stroke head on.

So let me ask you a very serious question, though. How many one of you in your own life have had a serious health challenge? Hands. Personally, any of you? A lot of hands go up. How many of your parents, maybe? More hands.

Your grandparents? Even more hands. Kids? At this point, everyone's hands go up. How many of your parents, maybe? More hands. Your grandparents? Even more hands. Kids? At this point, everyone's hand is up. I'm so sorry to know that. I certainly, I certainly know. I genuinely hope that you don't have a doctor in your life making fun of that

or telling you that you aren't fit to serve or to work at your job, right? Hmm. So he's flipping it on Dr. Oz. You're making fun of someone who's gone through a serious health crisis. Did that resonate? Yeah, it really, really did. And I heard as much so from voters. I talked to a couple of dozen people before the rally started as they waited in line. And I asked all of them what they thought of Fetterman's stroke.

And let me play some tape. Here's Tom Gilmore. I had a heart attack. You know, I'm still here. I'm still kicking. I think I'm pretty functional and with it. As long as he's healing and he's going to get back to 90 percent, I'll take 90 percent over Oz any day. Now, Tom's a Democrat, but I heard

essentially the same thing from the independents and Republicans I talked to, too. Here's Gary Thomas. He's a Trump voter who was weighing whether to vote for Fetterman or Oz in November. So what do you think of John Fetterman? I like the way he dresses because he don't act like a politician in a monkey suit. Fetterman had a stroke a couple months ago. It's been in the news a lot. What do you think about that? Does it influence your opinion?

No, I had heart attacks in the past, so it don't matter. You're capable of doing it. You got a brain. Just don't let the stress get to you. And take blood thinners, like a baby aspirin, and keep it going. And I got to tell you, Sean, like a dozen other people brought up health challenges they'd had or someone in their family had had when I asked them about Fetterman's stroke. America is a very sick country, and Fetterman's health problems seem to actually add to the image he's cultivating as a normal person. I wonder if it's just that Fetterman's established image that goes back to, you know, Braddock overpowers any health difficulties he's had. It sounds like from that last, you know, Trump supporter you spoke to, that it does. Yeah, I think that image that he's cultivated of himself

is really powerful and durable in voters' minds. Okay, three words come to your mind when I say Fetterman. Iconoclast, outsider, and larger-than-life personality. Salt of the earth, an ally, and tall. We think he's a down-to-earth guy. He's a Pennsylvania guy. He just seems like a down-to-earth guy. Why do you like him?

Down-to-earth. He's down-to-earth. He takes no crap. He says it like it is. Pennsylvania guy, down-to-earth, salt of the earth. Well said. I really like him as a person, not just for the politics. I mean, I think he could go to Washington and kick their ass.

Salt of the earth. It sounds like a whole lot of people who have no idea this guy went to Harvard. Yeah, I mean, it's probably obvious at this point. But what struck me is that Fetterman's appeal is so much deeper than his policies. In fact, a lot of voters I talked to didn't bring up any of his policies. They just brought up what you heard. And to be honest, it sort of reminded me of how voters talked about Trump. You know, I covered a President Trump speech in Scranton in 2020, and I heard similar things from voters. They were excited about this earthy outsider who could physically dominate his opponents in Washington.

Here's Mike. He's one more Fetterman voter. He didn't want to give me his last name. You know, why do you like Fetterman? I think he breaks a lot of the stereotypes. I think one of the things that Republicans like to use against Democrats is that we're going to get trampled over. Sort of the weak, I think, stereotype comes to mind. He totally breaks that. So even after a stroke, Fetterman's biker guy vibe remains dominant for people like Mike. But that might not be enough to win. Fetterman has been leading in the polls for the like Mike. But that might not be enough to win.

Fetterman has been leading in the polls for the whole race, but in the last couple of weeks, Oz has narrowed that gap. Analysts say Dr. Oz's attack ads that hammer Fetterman for being quote-unquote soft on crime are working. As of this week, the race is basically a toss-up. Miles Bryan, Philadelphia Bureau

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