house, but let s start with alexandria hoff who s tracking the races in three key swing states. reporter: hi, mike. let s start in pennsylvania, dre once-sizable lead that john fetterman once held. on tuesday the two are going to hold their first and only debate putting fetterman s health in focus. he spoke earlier today. you know, we had a stroke back in may. and it really [inaudible conversations] and despite all that, i survived to be back. reporter: fetterman will be relying on closed captions during the debate. oz has questioned whether fetterman is well enough to perform job and will likely have to appear not insensitive on stage. another toss-up, georgia s senate race where senator raphael warnock is facing off
inquiry? tribalism relative to fetterman when people are suiting up in their jerseys with how they want the senate race to turn out because remember, the retirement incumbent is pat toomey. if fetterman can pick up a seat, it s a gain for the ds. it s not a hold. it s a gain, and i think there is a tendency in this race as in other races to put aside issues that are worthy of legitimate discussion and analysis and instead look at who the opponent is and look at the bigger prize, senate control, and for that reason i put this in the category like georgia. by the way, i m not equating herschel walker potentially lying about paying for an abortion with the poor guy who had a stroke and the evangelicals in georgia are seemingly looking the other way when there s evidence that walker paid for an abortion in 2009 and in similar fashion, i sense from some of my radio callers that they don t want to hear about whether fetterman might not just have an auditory
that after the october 25th debate between the two candidates the polls could tighten even more and part of that is because voters are absolutely interested in whether fetterman can communicate clearly on his feet after health scare and whether oz can hold his own against a very seasoned politician, both have major strengths and weakens that are coming through. arthel: and which candidate can deliver what matters to the good people there in the keystone state? so it s a really toss-up race for a variety of reasons. if we look at dr. oz first, he definitely has weaknesses, he hasn t relatability issue, grocery store or the new jersey mansion tour and his staunchly pro-life position that he carved out for himself in the primary could be a liability in the general election, but
republicans consistently on the very top two issues for voters which are the economy and crime are perceived to be more credible and so you see the novus candidates like oz in pennsylvania or herschel walker in georgia doing really well because it s an antidemocrat political environment. arthel: does dr. oz new jersey residency matter and does lieutenant general fetterman s health matter? those types of things contribute to overall picture of a candidate. we generally don t think a single attribute predicts an election outcome but once you piece all of these things together and you have a very tight race in a state like pennsylvania, they certainly do add up and so something that s really interesting about oz right now is even though he is a political novist and mitch
way to do it to be sensitive to his recovery from his stroke. i want you both because you ve both been on campaigns and you both have been in these rooms where they re planning this, so i want you both to tell me, what s going on inside each campaign as they plan for this right now? what are they trying how are they trying to handle this issue, david? well, look, i mean, this is an issue. i mean there s no question, whether fetterman can perform as a senator is a legitimate question. it s been it s increasingly been raised. he disappeared from public view for quite a while after his stroke, which was a few days before the primary. he s out now. he s campaigning. i think inside his headquarters, the discussion is, this could be a problem. we have this race in our sights. we have it where we want it. but it could be upset if we don t answer this question. i think they ve been pretty