‘I Hope You Didn’t Have Your Doctor in Your Life Making Fun of You’

John Fetterman was a recent guest of our new podcast, On With Kara Swisher. Below, an excerpt from the conversation.

KARA SWISHER: My own mother, who votes in Pennsylvania, at dinner the other night said, “John Fetterman shouldn’t be senator because he had a stroke.” And I turned to her and I said, “You know, Mom, I had the exact same stroke.” And she said, “You’re different.” And I said, “No, it’s the exact same stroke. And I’ve never been more successful.” So I know what it’s like to go through what you’re going through. I didn’t realize I was having it until my brother told me I was having one because I had aphasia, where my voice—I wasn’t able to speak, essentially. It really was an emotional moment, the idea of losing your life or the ability to talk. What was your experience? JOHN FETTERMAN:

What happened was I was three or four days before the primary, and I was actually at a Sheetz, and I was getting ready to go to an event in Millersville University. And I walked out of the bathroom, I was going to the car, and my wife, Gisele, was kind of like the same to your brother in that situation. And she said, “Something’s wrong; you’re having a stroke.” And I’m like, “No, what are you talking about? That can’t be. No.” And we got in the car, and I started realizing that we weren’t going to the event— we’re going to the hospital.

And I’m like, “What are you doing? What are we doing? We got to go to the event.”

I was arguing in the middle of a stroke. And I got to the hospital, and thank God.

If that stroke would’ve happened at 11 at night, or I was in a remote area—being 20minutes away from the best stroke facility in Pennsylvania, that’s the reason why I lived. It changed my life in the most profound way that I would rank all the way up with becoming married or becoming a father. And life has never been the same since.

KS: How do you perceive your health right now? JF:

I feel like my recovery has been miraculous, to be honest. I feel great physically, in terms of just living a normal life the way I have. And I have auditory processing, and

I’m using captioning, and I’m going to be using captioning in the debate. And there are issues in terms of that because, especially when I’m being asked very specific questions, they have to count on captioning because I want to make sure I’m able to answer that kind of question.

KS: Does that get better? Has that gotten better over time? JF:

Yeah, it gets better and better. Everything’s been going in the same direction. And— I knock on wood—I haven’t had a day of backsliding.

But the difference is, is that I hope you didn’t have your doctor in your life making fun of you or saying that you’re not fit to do your job or anything. Or there’s somebody filming you, counting how many words that you miss.

KS: Yeah. Unfortunately, sometimes I feel like it’s working it. I was pretty appalled, having had that happen to me. In fact, Meg Whitman actually said something that made me angry, where she said, “Oh, you can talk. I thought you’d have to quit.” And I remember I gave a talk where everyone kept touching me and saying, “Are you okay? You need to stop being stressed.” And I said, “I’m going to be more stressed, I think, because I’m not going to slow down because of this.” So let’s talk about Dr. Oz. He and his allies have been attacking you for having the stroke. They suggested you lied about your recovery, that you had a stroke because you didn’t eat your vegetables. And that you’re unfit to serve in the Senate because of it. I was gobsmacked that a doctor would do this. JF:

Yeah, I was too. Of all the things that I was concerned about, having three young children and realizing that I could have lost my life and just being confronted with mortality in such a very dramatic way, to have somebody, a doctor, making fun of it, and having that happen at a national stage is—I don’t know. And

I started to realize that I just wanted to connect with people on the campaign trail. I asked people at events or at rallies, “Who’s ever had a health challenge in your life?” And a lot of hands go up. And then when I add in

“How about your parents?” And then more hands go up. “Or what about your grandparents? Or, God forbid, your child?” And then, by the time two-thirds to threequarters of the hands are up, and I said, “Good, I’m so sorry that this happened. I know what that feels like. And I really sincerely hope that you don’t have a doctor in your life making fun of what happened to you, blaming you for what happened, and then saying that you are unable to work and you shouldn’t.”

KS: So you have a debate coming up. Do you suspect Oz will use this to purposely to try to trip you up? One doctor told me he could make you try to say—he’s a cardiac thoracic surgeon; he could make you say uncommon words. JF:

I have no idea what to expect. The fact is, is that for me to be able to have a debate, I need captioning. That’s just a fact that I had a stroke. And if you think it’s funny or you think that means that I’m not fit to be a senator or work is— it’s absurd. But no matter what, if there’s an advantage to exploit, they’re clearly going to.

KS: Is there a thing that you like about Oz? JF:

I don’t know enough about him other than him making fun of me nearly dying.

KS: You don’t have to like him. You don’t have to like him. JF:

No, it’s not that. I understand sometimes that things aren’t personal or whatever. But as I said before, if me making fun of a father with three young kids that almost died is required for me to win, then

I would never do that.