Dasha Burns, an NBC News correspondent who has been covering the Pennsylvania senate race closely for the network, recently interviewed Pennsylvania Lt. Governor and Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman. The two-part sit-down was billed as the candidate’s first in-person interview since suffering a stroke over the summer.
In addition to his public policy positions and what he’d potentially bring to the U.S. Senate, a substantial portion of the interview focused on an in-depth discussion about his recent stroke and then a larger conversation about his state of mind at the time of the interview.
There was also the rare occurrence of the candidate using closed captioning during the interview, something Burns said Fetterman’s campaign required in order for the sit-down to happen.
“Fetterman’s campaign required closed captioning technology for this interview to essentially read our questions as we asked them,” Burns told Lester Holt on Tuesday’s broadcast of Nightly News. “And Lester, in small talk before the interview without captioning, it wasn’t clear he was understanding our conversation.”
The second part of that sentence set off a significant number of Twitter users, including media figures who had previously interviewed Fetterman. Was Fetterman not “fully there,” as Burns seemed to insinuate?
As someone who has recently interviewed him: Fetterman’s comprehension is not at all impaired. He understands everything, it’s just that he reads it (which requires extra acuity, I’d argue) and responds in real time. It’s a hearing/auditory processing challenge. https://t.co/RzmyfBDJX6
— Rebecca Traister (@rtraister) October 12, 2022
Sorry to say but I talked to @JohnFetterman for over an hour without stop or any aides and this is just nonsense. Maybe this reporter is just bad at small talk. https://t.co/CX9B7qWUaS
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) October 12, 2022
This is bs
I interviewed @JohnFetterman on @FastPoliticsPod two weeks agohttps://t.co/NTITXDtqxY
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) October 12, 2022
On the other side, multiple political reporters seem to feel Fetterman’s recent stroke could be problematic for his campaign and think that voters could be turned off by the prospect of voting for someone who seems to have a disability. But is that true? Does a disability (in this case, a stroke) hinder someone from performing an important job, in this case that of a U.S. senator?
An important interview with top Senate contender. Will Pennsylvanians be comfortable with someone representing them who had to conduct a TV interview this way? https://t.co/OBoEzEpFxi
— Ed O’Keefe (@edokeefe) October 12, 2022
This is a rough clip for @JohnFetterman, will only fuel questions about his health > https://t.co/wulYRvHyKF
— Jonathan Martin (@jmart) October 12, 2022
Burns has responded to some of the most high-profile critics. Nightly News also released the full, unedited version of the interview.
It’s possible for two different reporters to have two different experiences w a candidate. Our team was in the room w him & reported what happened in it, as journalists do. Before & after closed captioning was on.
Our full intv is now available to watch:https://t.co/UIRrzEd70X https://t.co/3s1TBKjFhb
— Dasha Burns (@DashaBurns) October 12, 2022
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. What we do push for as reporters is transparency. It’s our job. Fetterman sat down and answered our questions. That’s his job. https://t.co/gFZ02hlUs5
— Dasha Burns (@DashaBurns) October 12, 2022
NBC’s Today aired the second part of the interview Wednesday. Savannah Guthrie appropriately asked Burns about the criticism she has been receiving, and she responded.
Guthrie: Other journalists who have also dealt with Fetterman came forward and said they had a different experience.
Burns: Yeah, that’s completely fair Savannah, that was their experience, we can only report our own. I will say it’s important to note that according to the campaign itself, our team was first to be in the room with Fetterman for an interview rather than via video conference and myself, my producer and our crew did find that small talk before that captioning was difficult because of those auditory processing issues I mentioned. Stroke experts do say that this does not mean he has any cognitive impairment. Doesn’t mean his memory or his cognitive condition is impaired, and he didn’t fully recover from this. And once the closed captioning was on, he was able to fully understand my questions throughout that 25-minute interview which we will publish later today.