这宾夕法尼亚州参议员竞选中备受期待的辩论这是今年秋天共和党人麦赫迈特·奥兹和民主党人约翰·费特曼在竞争席位时唯一一次同台这可能会打破平衡在国会平分秋色的最高会议厅里。
这场由Nexstar主办的辩论引起了广泛关注，对脚镣人的健康字体这位副州长在5月份中风，使他缺席了三个月，并留下了挥之不去的症状，包括口吃。
费特曼在舞台上安装了显示器，可以实时记录歌词，并在演讲开始时承认，他会偶尔出现口齿不清、词不达意的情况。他说，他正在与一位语言治疗师合作，在口语方面有一些听觉处理问题，神经科医生说，这对中风幸存者来说并不罕见。
在谈到他是否适合担任公职时，费特曼指出，他的医生写了一封信，表示他已经准备好“全面履行职责”，并将他的中风描述为像许多其他人一样面临并克服的挑战。
“我的竞选活动就是为宾夕法尼亚州任何曾经被击倒、必须重新站起来的人而战。我也为宾夕法尼亚州所有被遗忘的社区而战，那些曾经被摧毁的社区，”他在闭幕词中说。
奥兹是一名医生，也是一名受欢迎的电视节目主持人，他在闭幕词中向选民表示，他将为华盛顿带来“平衡”。
“我是外科医生，不是政客。我们解决大问题，我们关注它们，解决它们，我们通过团结——通过走到一起——而不是分裂来做到这一点。通过这样做，我们取得了领先，”他说。
在辩论中，他和费特尔曼就堕胎权、公共安全和犯罪、通货膨胀和最低工资等问题展开辩论，以及两人谁在开展更真诚的竞选活动。
费特尔曼指责奥兹在辩论舞台和电视生涯中频繁撒谎，称之为“奥兹法则”。奥兹后来反驳说，费瑟曼针对他的一则广告因“不诚实”而被撤下，而他的竞选团队却没有这样的处罚。
奥兹说，费特曼对他的攻击，对他对堕胎限制的看法，以及是否削减社会保障和医疗保险(奥兹说他反对)相当于“制造恐惧”。
费特曼把奥兹塑造成一个远离城镇、不食人间烟火的人，反复援引奥兹的财富和许多财产。“我相信这是为了服务宾夕法尼亚州，而不是为了他们自己的利益利用宾夕法尼亚州，”他说。
奥兹也回到了一个关键主题:那个羁绊者在寻求服务于整个国家的解决方案时是“激进的”。他在州假释委员会上就羁绊人的记录向羁绊人施压，称他在犯罪和公共安全方面软弱。他说，费瑟曼会对国家的能源工业不利。
费特尔曼坚持说他支持水力压裂法——尽管主持人指出他在2018年曾说过相反的话——并且作为宾夕法尼亚州布拉多克的市长，他成功地遏制了枪支暴力，并有公共安全问题的记录。
在堕胎问题上，费特曼表示，他希望恢复罗伊诉韦德案下的全国堕胎指导方针，并将其编纂成法律，最高法院今年夏天推翻了该指导方针。
奥兹说，他不会支持其他一些共和党人呼吁的联邦堕胎禁令。他形容自己是“反堕胎”的，支持限制堕胎，只有少数例外，他说，相比之下，费特曼支持税收补贴堕胎，甚至到最后三个月。在堕胎和其他问题上，他形容费瑟曼是“激进的”
费特曼坚持说，他支持罗伊的指导方针，不多也不少，应该是支持女性个人选择的选民所选择的候选人。
奥兹反驳了费特尔曼，费特尔曼试图给他贴上在堕胎问题上比他在舞台上说的更极端的标签:费特尔曼打断了奥兹的时间，将奥兹与州长候选人道格·马斯特里亚诺联系起来。奥兹说费特尔曼试图“吓唬”女性。
在其他地方，费特曼说，他支持一项法律，将州最低工资提高到每小时15美元，是目前水平的两倍多。奥兹说，他希望最低工资甚至更高，但通过一项“释放”该州能源行业的计划，由市场力量驱动。
民意调查已经大幅缩小，与三十五点八的平均值现在显示费瑟曼领先不到3个百分点，低于六周前的近11个百分点。
Fetterman and Oz face off in Pennsylvania Senate debate: Live updates
Thehighly anticipated debate in the Pennsylvania's Senate racewas held Tuesday night -- the only time this fall that Republican Mehmet Oz and Democrat John Fetterman shared a stage, as they each vie for a seatthat could tip the balancein Congress' evenly divided top chamber.
Considerable attention in the debate, hosted by Nexstar,was on Fetterman's health: The lieutenant governor suffered a stroke in May that sidelined him for three months and left him with lingering symptoms, including halting speech.
Fetterman had monitors on stage to transcribe words in real time and acknowledged early on in the hour that he would be occasionally stumbling over and confusing his words. He has said he is working with a speech therapist and has some auditory processing issues with spoken language, which neurologists say is not uncommon for stroke survivors.
Addressing his fitness for office, Fetterman pointed to a letter from his physician that he was ready for "full duty" and described his stroke as a challenge like many other people had faced and overcome.
"My campaign is all about fighting for anyone in Pennsylvania that ever got knocked down, that had to get back up again. I'm also fighting for any forgotten communities all across Pennsylvania that ever got knocked down," he said in his closing message.
Oz, a doctor and popular TV host, in his closing message pitched voters that he would bring "balance" to Washington.
"I'm a surgeon, not a politician. We take big problems, we focus on them and we fix them, and we do it by uniting -- by coming together -- not dividing. And by doing that, we get ahead," he said.
During the debate, he and Fetterman sparred on abortion access, public safety and crime, inflation and the minimum wage and more -- and which of the two was running the more sincere campaign.
Fetterman accused Oz of frequently lying, both on the debate stage and in his TV career, calling it the "Oz rule." Oz later pushed back that one of Fetterman's ads against him had been pulled for being "dishonest" while his campaign had no such penalty.
Oz said that Fetterman's attacks on him, on his views on abortion restrictions and whether or not to cut Social Security and Medicare (which Oz said he opposed) amounted to "fear-mongering."
Fetterman cast Oz as out-of-town and out-of-touch, repeatedly invoking Oz's wealth and many properties. "I believe it's about serving Pennsylvania, not about using Pennsylvania for their own interests," he said.
Oz returned to a key theme as well: that Fetterman was "radical" while he was seeking solutions that served the whole state. He pressed Fetterman on Fetterman's record on the state parole board, calling him weak on crime and public safety. And he said that Fetterman would do wrong by the state's energy industry.
Fetterman insisted he supported fracking -- despite the moderators noting he had said otherwise in 2018 -- and that as a mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, he had successfully worked to curb gun violence and had a track record of public safety issues.
On abortion, Fetterman said he wanted to revive and codify into law the nationwide abortion guidelines under Roe v. Wade, which the Supreme Court struck down this summer.
Oz said he wouldn't support a federal abortion ban -- which some other Republicans have called for. He has described himself as "pro-life" and supports restrictions abortion with a few exceptions, saying that by contrast Fetterman supported tax-subsidized abortion even into the final trimester. On abortion and other issues, he described Fetterman as "radical."
Fetterman insisted he supported Roe's guidelines, no more and no less, and should be the candidate chosen by voters who support a woman's personal choice.
Oz rebutted Fetterman, who sought to label him as actually more extreme on abortion than he was saying on stage: Fetterman cut into Oz's time to link Oz to gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano. Oz said Fetterman was trying to "scare" women.
Elsewhere, Fetterman said he supported a law to raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour, more than double its current rate. Oz said he wanted the minimum wage even higher than that, but driven by market forces via a plan to "unleash" the state's energy industry.
Polls have narrowed considerably, withFiveThirtyEight's averagenow showing Fetterman ahead by less than 3 points, down from nearly 11 points six weeks ago.
