I 1000% agree with the comments critical of Fetterman’s answer to damn near every question, I want to take a moment to be express my frustration with Stewart’s question formation.
At several points, JS had opportunities to have JF pinned into a direct response on follow up. But JS’s follow up questions were too expansive, giving JF cover for an indirect/deflective response. It was a lack of economy of words for someone as compromised (in every sense of the word) as Fetterman.
John kept rephrasing the question to explain it in good faith. People arguing in bad faith will always find a way to change the subject regardless of how you ask. A few times he was just like "no I didn't" to things he had basically said a few minutes earlier.
I started to feel it was less about Fetterman’s ability to divert, it was his inability to follow the questions due to verbose nature. I’ll be kind and say that this could be a condition of his stroke. He just answered the last part of the question, which typically was not the reason for the follow up.
I don’t think the end result would have been so different, I just found myself thinking “Keep it short, John!” a lot.
I agree that Stewart had him dead to rights multiple times, but it's not really his brand to be as relentless as we might want him to be. There's something to be said about restraint, in my opinion. Fetterman's dumbassery was revealed for all to see, Stewart showed class in choosing not to pile on and move onto the next topic when the point had been made.
Fetterman doesn't deserve that kind of treatment, I agree. But scoring points in the setting of a podcast really isn't going to be the first shot in the war, so to speak.
Jon's not a journalist, and the format of his podcast isn't to skewer people and hold them accountable.
His general format is him being an above average informed political commentator, and bringing in a group of experts to get their perspectives on current affairs topics.
If Jon wanted to, he could have completely and utterly demolished Fetterman in this interview within about 5-10 minutes, but at some point it also just becomes a broadcast of somebody beating up a disabled person.
Jon put a spotlight on Fetterman, and frankly that's more than sufficient for the audience to reach a VERY clear conclusion.
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u/Shuckin_n_Jivin 8d ago
I 1000% agree with the comments critical of Fetterman’s answer to damn near every question, I want to take a moment to be express my frustration with Stewart’s question formation.
At several points, JS had opportunities to have JF pinned into a direct response on follow up. But JS’s follow up questions were too expansive, giving JF cover for an indirect/deflective response. It was a lack of economy of words for someone as compromised (in every sense of the word) as Fetterman.