erica hill. a critical night of debates, candidates making their final push just 13 days to go until election day. in pennsylvania one of the most crucial senate races this year, the first and only debate between democrat john fetterman and republican mehmet oz. the two sparring on a number of topics. it was fetterman s health, though, that s really controlling the headlines this morning. fetterman of course is still recovering from a stroke he suffered in may. he did struggle at times during the debate. we are going to take a closer look. plus, a crime of major a he can focus in new york where kathy hochul faced off with lee zeldin. the two exchanging bashsrbs ove abortion rights and the 2020 election. hochul s lead is shrinking. we will break down all the headlines from last night s debate. let s begin with cnn congressional correspondent jessica dean who is in harrisburg, pennsylvania, this morning. jessica, john fetterman s health was a major focus before the debate las
senate because washington keeps getting it wrong with extreme positions. john fetterman takes everything to an extreme. and those extreme positions hurt us all. all eyes on pennsylvania on a debate in that race that could determine the balance of power in the senate. i m brianna keilar with alex marquardt this morning. it s great to have you. thank you for having me. john berman is off today. and democrat john fetterman and republican mehmet oz who you saw there, arguing the issues, also attacking each other in their first and only debate. fetterman addressed his recovery from a recent strokes. he used a closed captioning device for help. the candidates went toe to toe on key issues, like inflation and the economy. i can make the difficult decisions as you do in the operating room as a surgeon. i ll do them cutting our budget as well. he has never met an oil company that he doesn t swipe right about. he has never been able to stand up for working families across pen
welcome to cnn newsroom. and i m bianna golodryga. nearly 12 million americans have already voted across 43 states in the midterm elections. inflation, crime and abortion were the topics that dominated fiery debates last night. in pennsylvania senate s race the most high profile of the midterms another factor came into play and that is the health of one of the candidates. the performance democrat john getter han who survived a stroke has put a new intensity into the matchup. some fetterman voters are saying after seeing him struggle they re now worried about on the fence people like independents and undecided voters. another cold cnn, this is the quote, it was tough to watch fetterman, it s kind of like looking at a car accident, you want to look but you don t want to look. however, the fetterman campaign says he raised more than a million dollars in the hours after that debate. fetterman s republican rival mehmet oz is getting negative feedback for his response to a qu
pouring in. the pressure is on and the gloves are off. john, obviously i wasn t clear enough for you to understand this. here s a man that spent more than $20 million of his own money to try to buy that seat. you and donald trump were the masterful covid deniers. you re poorer and less safe because of kathy hochul and extreme policies. with 13 days left, candidates from both parties are scratching, clawing for every last vote. and there s going to be a lot of votes if the pre-election day ballot numbers are any indication. let s start in pennsylvania today. democrat john fetterman and republican mehmet oz facing off in their only debate, some accommodations were made as fetterman recovers from a stroke but both candidates had some bumpy answers. cnn s jessica dean is in harrisburg for us. how are the candidates cleaning things up today? reporter: even more than cleaning up the two are zeroing in on where they think the weaknesses are for the other campaigns from l
the russian leader. democrat saying we have not face the prospect of armageddon since kennedy and the missile crisis. i don t think there s an ability to use a nuclear weapon and not end up with armageddon. look what you just heard from the president, this is stark language. you do not normally hear this from u.s. presidents. not now. and it comes as the u.s. considers how to response to a range of potential scenarios. for more let s bring in jeremy diamond. has there been any escalation from russia that prompted these remarks? reporter: there s no question there is an elevated risk of nuclear war based on the language we ve heard from the russian president but u.s. officials say there is nothing that has changed that nothing that they have seen that has changed in russia s nuclear posture. last week we heard the russian president talking about any and all means necessary to defend russian territory as he talked about the use of nuclear weapons but what we haven t hea