'I Would Love To See An Apology': John Fetterman's Wife BLASTS NBC News As 'Ableist' After Interview With Stroke-Survivor Husband
Oct. 18 2022, Published 9:15 a.m. ET
Senate candidate John Fetterman’s wife slammed NBC News this week following an interview between her husband and the network’s Dasha Burns, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Gisele Fetterman, John’s wife of 14 years, spoke out on Monday nearly one week after her Senate candidate husband sat for an interview with Burns ahead of the upcoming midterm election on November 8.
According to Burns, John – who is recovering from a stroke he suffered in May – needed a closed captioning monitor during the interview to help him fully process and comprehend some of the questions he was being asked.
“We had a monitor set up so that he could read my questions,” Burns told MSNBC’s Katy Tur shortly after the interview, “because he still has lingering auditory processing issues as a result of the stroke, which means he has a hard time understanding what he’s hearing.”
“Now, once he reads the question, he’s able to understand,” Burns continued. “You’ll hear he also has some problems, some challenges with speech. And I’ll say…that just in some of the small talk prior to the interview, before the closed captioning was up and running, it did seem that he had a hard time understanding our conversation.”
Gisele, while speaking to the Independent on Monday, blasted Burns’ comments and accused the NBC News host of being “ableist” for seemingly treating John unfairly due to his stroke recovery.
“If this happened in a school, if this was a child that was ableist towards another child or a teacher, there would’ve been issues stated,” Gisele told the outlet. “There would have been new training done.”
“What is being done at the media after a reporter came out so openly ableist towards a person? I think shocked and appalled, but sadly not surprised,” she continued. “I know there’s still so much to do, but it would be great to see some accountability, to actually see real change.”
“I would love to see an apology towards the disability community from her and from her network for the damage they have caused.”
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, John’s rival – Republican Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz – used Burns’ comments to attack his opponent and question the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor’s fitness for office.
“I don’t think there’s closed captioning on the floor of the Senate, and maybe he doesn’t need closed captioning when he’s actually moving around,” Oz said at the time. “But maybe he does. Again, lots of question marks, and voters deserve better.”
Burns has since defended her interview, and her subsequent comments regarding John’s performance during the interview, by insisting her reporting “did not and should not comment on fitness for office.”
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“We were happy to accommodate closed captioning. Our reporting did not and should not comment on fitness for office. This is for voters to decide,” Burns tweeted on Wednesday.
“What we do push for as reporters is transparency. It’s our job,” she added. “Fetterman sat down and answered our questions. That’s his job.”
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