John Fetterman announces he will debate Dr. Oz, but calls for closed captioning to accommodate lingering hearing loss from his stroke

• John Fetterman has said that he is open to debating his Republican counterpart Mehmet Oz.
• Fetterman said that he would agree to debates in mid-to-late October.

John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democratic candidate for Senate, signaled that he'd be open to debating his Republican counterpart Mehmet Oz – under some conditions.

In a statement sent to Insider, Fetterman said, "We're absolutely going to debate Dr. Oz, and that was really always our intent to do that."

According to Politico, Oz had called for debates in early September. And at a recent rally alongside former President Donald Trump, Oz criticized Fetterman's health and accused him of using drugs.

Fetterman had a stroke in May while on the campaign trail, and returned to action in August. He added in his statement that he would want to debate in mid-to-late October, following the schedule of previous US Senate debates in his state, and called for some modifications related to his health.

"It was just simply only ever been about addressing some of the lingering issues of the stroke, the auditory processing, and we're going to be able to work that out," Fetterman said, calling for the use of closed captions in the debates. "This whole thing has been about Dr. Oz and his team mocking me for having a stroke because they've got nothing else."

The Democratic candidate told Politico that his hearing is still impaired due to the stroke and did not offer debate logistics but called for the debate to be on a "major television station."

In response, Brittany Yanick, a Communications Director for Dr. Oz, said that "John Fetterman's campaign is embarrassing themselves."

"Let's be clear – Dr. Oz's campaign won't agree to a SECRET debate," Yannick added. "It has to be a REAL one with REAL journalists asking REAL questions. Sorry John – imaginary debates don't count!"