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Democrat John Fetterman agreed to do an interview with NBC News and it did not go well, at least not when the interview’s reviews came in. It turned into a mess when the journalist’s honest assessment of Fetterman’s health got her into a whole lot of hot water with her colleagues.

NBC’s Dasha Burns reported on MSNBC after the interview, though the network made accommodations for him, even extra efforts couldn’t disguise the fact that Fetterman struggles with cognitive issues five months out from his stroke. As you can imagine, Fetterman’s campaign wants everyone to believe that he’s fine and ready to go to be the next senator from Pennsylvania. He promises he’ll be fine by January.

“In small talk before the interview, without captioning, it wasn’t clear he was understanding our conversation,” NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns told Lester Holt at the top of the “NBC Nightly News” report.

Burns later encouraged others to watch the Fetterman sitdown, tweeting, “Unlike any political interview I’ve ever done. Unlike any race I’ve ever covered.”

Nothing says, OMG, the polls are tightening up and Oz just may win this thing like a bunch of blue check liberals rushing to Fetterman’s defense after Burns’ appearance on MSNBC. Holy cow.

“Sorry to say but I talked to @JohnFetterman for over an hour without stop or any aides and this is just nonsense. Maybe this reporter is just bad at small talk,” Vox’s Kara Swisher knocked the NBC reporter.

“Here’s my interview with @JohnFetterman from a few days ago. The notion that he wasn’t able to understand is mind-numbingly false,” liberal YouTube personality Brian Tyler Cohen tweeted.

“I interviewed @JohnFetterman here, he understood everything I was saying and he was funny,” podcast host Molly Jong-Fast said.

To their credit, some journalists were honest and took an objective look at what Burns said.

I consider both of those guys as unprofessional partisans in their covering of Democrats in politics, by the way. At least this one time they admit there may be a problem for Pennsylvania voters.

All eyes are on Pennsylvania. The Senate race is a toss-up at this point, with Real Clear Politics averaging showing a 3.4 point lead by Fetterman. As RCP notes, “25 Days to Election (2016 to 2020) Polls Underestimated GOP by 6.0.” So, yeah, it looks like Oz can win this race. Democrats are panicked. Fetterman’s inclination has been to hide from doing interviews and lay it on recovering from his stroke. Well, he can’t have it both ways. Either he’s ready to do the work, or he’s not.

So, to do some clean-up from the NBC interview, Fetterman’s campaign launched an ad Friday that features the candidate and his wife and children. He talks about recovering from his stroke and finds time in the 30 second ad to blast Oz, too. The ad is titled “Matters”.

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The ad will be shown in markets across Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Fetterman’s wife, Gisele thinks there should be an apology issued and consequences for the interview. Wow.

John Fetterman’s wife blasted NBC’s Dasha Burns for her portrayal of a recent interview with the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate, accusing the reporter of “ableism” and calling her behavior “appalling.”

Speaking with Molly Jong-Fast on the Fast Politics Pod, Gisele Fetterman said she felt “rage” when she learned that Burns had revealed that her husband was unable to hold a conversation.

The coverage did a disservice “to not only my husband, but anyone facing a disability and working through it,” she said.

“I mean, there are consequences for folks in these positions who are any of these isms. I mean, she was ableist. That’s what she was in her interview. It was appalling to the entire disability community and I think to journalism,” she said.

“I haven’t heard an apology. It hasn’t come,” she went on to declare before saying she was “hopeful” that NBC would “reflect” on its handling of the situation.

Perhaps someone should tell Gisele that playing victim when truth is revealed is not a position of strength. Democrats are so used to being protected by the media that when someone actually does their job and tells viewers what the situation was during the interview, Democrats freak out. Her husband had what appears to be a serious stroke. He was hospitalized for a week and then hidden away at home for many weeks after that, leaving his supporters to wonder what was going on. Pennsylvania voters have a right to know his true condition and the chances of a full recovery. It is possible to both wish him a full recovery and to honestly assess his current condition.

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