'Demand Hamas to surrender': Fetterman continues speaking out against Hamas



Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania is continuing to speak out against Hamas months after the heinous October 2023 attack in which terrorists slaughtered, kidnapped, and raped people in Israel, prompting the Jewish state to launch a war effort in response.

"At any point, Hamas could have ended this burgeoning tragedy to surrender and release every hostage," a post on the @JohnFetterman X account states. "Hamas instigated and owns this humanitarian catastrophe."

"Demand Hamas to surrender. Demand release every hostage. Demand to seize billions of dollars Hamas stole from Gaza. Demand those stolen billions to rebuild Gaza and compensate true victims- Israelis and Palestinians. Demand Hamas eliminated or permanently exiled," another post reads.

"I'll always take the word of our ally over a group of cowards that hide in tunnels behind civilians and hold children, women and elderly hostage since October 7th," Fetterman noted in another post.

— (@)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been clear that Israel aims to wipe out Hamas, and Fetterman has previously expressed support for Israel's right to do so. "For peace & a 2-state solution, Hamas must be destroyed & I fully support Israel's right to do that," a November 2023 post on the @SenFettermanPA X account declared. "Hamas is anathema for the peace, Palestinians deserve better."

Fetterman took office last year after defeating Republican candidate Mehmet Oz in a 2022 election contest.

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Watch: John Fetterman reads reporter's questions off a computer to understand them, insists his stroke won't have 'impact' if elected to Senate



Pennsylvania lieutenant governor and Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman's health was the focus of a conversation he had with NBC News on Tuesday, during which he struggled to speak and understand the questions he was asked.

With Election Day just over three weeks away, Fetterman insisted that a near-fatal stroke he suffered in May wouldn't affect his ability to serve in the United States Senate should he defeat Republican Mehmet Oz.

“I don’t think it’s going to have an impact,” he told NBC News' Dasha Burns in his first in-person sit-down interview since the stroke. The Fetterman campaign required NBC to provide closed-captioning technology so that the lieutenant governor could read the questions as they were asked in order to understand and respond.

“I sometimes will hear things in a way that’s not perfectly clear. So I use captioning so I’m able to see what you’re saying on the captioning,” Fetterman explained.

NBC News noted that he occasionally stuttered and had trouble finding words during the interview. At one point he couldn't articulate the word "empathetic" and instead said something that sounded like "emphetic." But he denied that this was a difficulty.

\u201cJohn Fetterman struggles to say \u201cempathetic"\u201d
— RNC Research (@RNC Research) 1665518916

"It was just about having to be thinking more, uh, sl, uh — slower — to just understand and that sometimes that’s kind of the processing that happens,” Fetterman said.

Fetterman suffered a stroke in May caused by a blood clot from his heart formed by atrial fibrillation. Doctors surgically implanted a pacemaking device with a defibrillator to monitor and regulate his heartbeat. At the time, Fetterman said doctors insisted there was "no cognitive damage," but in subsequent campaign appearances he's made several verbal slips that Republicans have called attention to while raising questions about his ability to serve.

\u201cHow can @JohnFetterman expect Pennsylvanians to send him to the Senate if he\u2019s not being honest about his health?\n \nWatch the NRSC\u2019s latest video:\u201d
— Senate Republicans (@Senate Republicans) 1662990538

Fetterman admitted to NBC News that his recovery "changes everything."

“But it gets much, much better where I take in a lot. But to be precise, I use captioning, so that’s really the maijing — that’s the major challenge. And every now and then I’ll miss a word. Every now and then. Or sometimes I’ll maybe mush two words together. But as long as I have captioning, I’m able to understand exactly what’s being asked,” he said.

Pennsylvania's battleground Senate race could determine which party will control the Senate next year, with Democrats currently holding a 50-50 majority and Vice President Kamala Harris breaking tie votes. Both parties have poured millions of dollars into the contest

Republican candidate Dr. Oz has sought to make Fetterman's health a major issue in the race. Oz has consistently trailed Fetterman in polls, but he has cut what was a double-digit lead for Fetterman in some surveys after the Senate primary in May to just a 3.7-point average differential by the end of September. He has attacked Fetterman for refusing to share his medical records with reporters and for only agreeing to one debate.

Burns pressed Fetterman on his refusal to disclose his medical records.

"If my doctor teams already said I'm fine, I'm not really sure that's much more beyond transparent," he replied, but Burns pointed out that the Fetterman campaign hasn't provided any of his doctors for interviews with the press.

\u201cNBC: "Why not be transparent and [release medical records]?"\n\nFetterman: "If my doctor teams already said I'm fine, I'm not really sure that's much more beyond transparent."\n\nNBC: "We're taking your word for what your doctors are telling you. We haven't heard from them in months"\u201d
— Greg Price (@Greg Price) 1665587190

"Well, I mean, if they believed that I was ready to do that, and I've been able to successfully do that kind of campaigning, I think that demonstrates what they said and their opinions were pretty accurate," Fetterman said. He insisted that he's been transparent by presenting himself on the campaign trail, where voters can see him and decide for themselves whether he is fit to serve.

Watch:

John Fetterman Discusses Health, Campaign In First Sit-Down Interview Since Stroke youtu.be

Democratic Senate candidate has two convicted murderers on his campaign staff



A Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate currently employs two convicted murderers on his campaign staff, according to government documents.

John Fetterman, the current lieutenant governor of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Democrat candidate vying for the Senate seat that Sen. Pat Toomey (R) will soon vacate, has on his campaign payroll Dennis and Lee Horton, two brothers convicted of murdering Samuel Alamo nearly 30 years ago.

In May 1993, the Horton brothers and co-conspirator Robert Leaf committed armed robbery at Filito's Bar in Philadelphia. During the execution of the robbery, three people were shot: Alamo, Luz Archello, and her daughter Luz Martinez.

After the Hortons and Leaf left the bar, a witness was able to give police a description of their getaway vehicle and a partial plate. The cops located the three men and the vehicle about a mile from the bar. Two guns were retrieved from the car, one of which was determined by forensics to be the rifle used in the shooting.

Alamo died from his injuries, but both Archello and Martinez survived and identified the three men as the robbers who had shot them. A third witness who was not injured in the robbery identified them as well.

The Hortons were convicted of second-degree murder, three counts of robbery, four counts of aggravated assault, conspiracy, and possession of an instrument of a crime and sentenced to life in prison. They served 27 years until December 2020, when the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, led by Fetterman, voted unanimously to free them.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Fetterman had campaigned the board aggressively on behalf of the Hortons in particular, threatening to oppose current Democratic candidate for governor Josh Shapiro in the primary if he refused to vote to release them.

In February 2021, Gov. Tom Wolf (D) gave the Hortons and 11 other convicted murderers clemency and commuted their sentences to time served. Clemency reduces the sentences of convicted criminals, but does not exonerate them.

Dennis and Lee Horton, who have always maintained their innocence, now work for Fetterman's campaign. It is unclear when they joined the team.

Fetterman's Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, has called for Fetterman to dismiss the Hortons from his staff because of their violent history.

"John Fetterman consistently puts murderers and other criminals ahead of Pennsylvania communities," said Brittany Yanick, a spokesman for Oz. "John Fetterman’s even trying to hide his record from voters by running TV ads saying he’s tough on crime. His positions – including releasing one-third of inmates onto our streets – says otherwise as does the fact that he hired two convicted murderers on his campaign.

"If John Fetterman cared about Pennsylvania’s crime problem, he’d prove it by firing the convicted murderers he employs on his campaign," she added.

On Thursday, Oz issued a tweet thread about Fetterman's soft-on-crime approach and mentioned Samuel Alamo's name specifically.

\u201cSamuel Alamo was at a bar in Philly that was the site of a horrific shooting. Alamo was shot and killed. Dennis and Lee Horton were convicted in the murder and are now paid by @JohnFetterman's campaign.\u201d
— Dr. Mehmet Oz (@Dr. Mehmet Oz) 1662042412

The Fetterman campaign immediately fired back against the accusations.

"This smear is a sad and desperate attack from Dr. Oz’s shambolic campaign," a statement from Fetterman reads. "Going after two campaign staffers is a new low for Dr. Oz. Dennis and Lee, who were wrongfully convicted, are two of the kindest, hardest working people I know — fighting for their release was one of the proudest moments of my career and I'm honored to have them on this team."

"Does Dr. Oz believe that the wrongfully convicted should die in prison?" the statement added. "Does this man have any compassion? He’s making a predictable and fear mongering attack against two men who spent 27 years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit."