Gisele Fetterman says children were ‘appalled’ Oz campaign mocked husband’s stroke

Gisele Fetterman, the wife of Senator-elect John Fetterman (D-Pa.), said that their children were “appalled” with Republican challenger Dr. Mehmet Oz’s campaign mocking her husband’s recent stroke. 

In an interview with NBC’s “Today” published Thursday, Fetterman said that her children were aware of the tactics Oz’s campaign accused to attack their father’s health condition, adding that their awareness made her proud. 

John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s current lieutenant governor, suffered a stroke earlier this year, which affected the way he processes speech. Fetterman’s health scare was used by Oz’s campaign as an attack to question the current Senator-elect’s fitness to serve in office. 

“My kids were appalled by that. They thought it was so gross,” Fetterman told the Today show. “(I raised them) to be kind and compassionate and empathetic children … They recognized what was right and what was wrong and that is all you can hope for as a parent, that you’re teaching your kids to recognize right and wrong.”

Fetterman also said that the family were able to adapt to her husband’s health scare, noting how her kids were able to grasp why their father needed to use a closed captioning tool to read speeches. 

“Families comes with challenges and that’s a part of life and you learn to adapt and be flexible,” Fetterman added. “At this time, he’s using a closed captioning tool. It’s been great to show the kids that technology can help folks be more connected … it’s really cool that there’s a tool that helped him become better right now while he’s healing.”

Gisele Fetterman’s remarks come after her husband defeated Oz, a retired surgeon, and television personality, in last month’s midterm election to fill the vacancy of retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) seat in the Senate chamber.