John Fetterman, who survived his own bad debate in 2022, is Joe Biden’s biggest defender

As President Joe Biden campaigned in Roxborough on Sunday, part of a damage control tour to save his teetering reelection campaign, he stopped mid-sentence and pointed to Sen. John Fetterman.

“By the way, I got John Fetterman,” Biden said. “I don’t need much else.”

Fetterman, who hit the trail with Biden last weekend, has been an ardent defender of the president on social media, cable news, and in the hallways of the Capitol.

“There is only one person in the country that’s ever kicked Trump’s ass in an election, and that is your president,” Fetterman said in Roxborough. “That’s our president. That’s your president. That’s my president.”

Fetterman’s political brand has always been blunt and bullish. But supporting Biden may also be personal: Two years ago when Fetterman had a stroke, he encountered similar scrutiny in the heat of a campaign and ran on a comeback slogan echoing Biden’s strategy.

The Pennsylvania Democrat’s outspoken defense of Biden comes at a moment when the president needs support within his party. Although Biden has remained adamant that he will remain his party’s nominee, Democrats in Congress have been slow to collectively rally around him, wary of his ability to beat former President Donald Trump or serve another four years.

A handful of House Democrats and one senator have called on Biden to drop out of the race, and many are reportedly weighing what to do, given their concerns. Pennsylvania’s delegation appears split, with several representatives, such as U.S. Reps. Brendan Boyle and Madeleine Dean, appearing beside Biden in recent days, and some others who are facing difficult reelections indicating that they still have reservations.

Sen. Bob Casey, perhaps Biden’s closest ally in the Pennsylvania delegation, has said he thinks Biden should remain the nominee and also appeared with him this past weekend. With a reelection campaign of his own, Casey has been a more quiet supporter.

Asked on Tuesday in Washington whether he had become more skeptical of Biden’s abilities, Casey said: “How could I have been skeptical if I was with him?” Asked whether he is fully behind Biden, Casey said, “I am.”

Fetterman has defended Biden more forcefully — and delivered the kind of irreverent soundbites he’s known for:

“I’m gonna suggest maybe we can encourage Joe Biden to bang a porn star or maybe he could become consumed with revenge and say crazy things and have a plan for 2025,” Fetterman told Punchbowl News, referencing Trump’s hush money conviction in New York and Project 2025, a set of conservative proposals for a second Trump presidency that have come under scrutiny.

Fetterman’s support for Biden may also come from knowing what it’s like to have a bad debate that results in scrutiny about your health and fitness for office.

Fetterman built a campaign in 2022 as a tough-looking, atypical politician who could relate to voters across Pennsylvania. Six months after he suffered a pre-primary stroke that could have killed him, he took a debate stage against celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz. The effects of the stroke greatly impacted his ability to articulate his thoughts, and the debate did not go well for him, prompting questions, largely from Republicans, about whether he was fit to serve.

Fetterman has said the comments that followed that debate — scathing rebukes on social media and in the news, contributed to severe depression that he sought treatment for months later.

Fetterman went on to win that race handily, something he’s emphasized to stress that Biden’s bad debate June 27 might not mean a bad election outcome (though he’s also said he thinks the election will be close).

“I know what it’s like to have a rough debate,” Fetterman said in Roxborough. “And I’m standing right here, you know, as your senator.”

While the circumstances are extremely different — Fetterman is 54 and Biden is 81 ― some of the questions over Biden’s fitness for office echo concerns Fetterman faced in 2022.

Fetterman also got calls, as Biden has, to release proof of his mental acuity in 2022. The campaign published doctors’ notes and stressed that speech impediments, in his case auditory processing challenges, did not necessarily indicate cognitive damage.

Fetterman has continued to recover from his stroke and questions surrounding his fitness are now a distant memory, while Biden remains in the midst of a pivotal campaign moment.

The narrative the two men aimed to rebound after their debates is also similar.

After his stroke, Fetterman shamed Oz for mocking a stroke survivor and capitalized on the moment to appeal to other Pennsylvanians who’ve faced health challenges by casting himself as a resilient underdog who got “knocked down but got back up.”

Biden, in his first rally following the debate, told supporters in Raleigh, N.C.:

“Like millions of Americans, I know when you get knocked down, you get back up.”