Posted on September 8, 2022

Oz Backers Launch Ads Attacking Fetterman for Pulling Gun on Black Jogger in 2013

Marc Caputo, NBC News, September 6, 2022

During Pennsylvania’s Senate primary, Black Democrats worried that the GOP would target voters with ads about the time Democrat John Fetterman pulled a gun on a Black jogger he wrongly suspected of a crime.

Now it’s on the air.

A political committee backing Fetterman’s opponent in the general election, Republican Mehmet Oz, is launching a 30-second TV ad about the incident that started airing Tuesday on networks that have solid African American viewership, such as Black Entertainment Television, the Oprah Winfrey Network, MSNBC and ESPN, the group, American Leadership Action, said by email. The committee also has a companion 15-second digital ad designed to reach Black voters on their smartphones and social media feeds.

The $500,000 ad campaign comes as Oz, the celebrity TV doctor, has struggled to gain traction since his bruising May 17 primary. At the same time, Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, easily bested his opponents — even though he had just suffered a life-threatening stroke from which he’s still recovering.

Fetterman leads in nearly every poll, and by double digits in some surveys, prompting Republicans to train their fire on him to keep Democrats from flipping the Senate seat that Republican Pat Toomey is giving up.

The incident happened nine years ago when Fetterman was mayor of the Pittsburgh-area town of Braddock. He said he heard what he thought was gunfire, saw a man running away, chased him down with his shotgun and detained him until police arrived. The jogger, Chris Miyares, was found at the time to have committed no crime. He is now incarcerated for an unrelated crime, and he recently told The Philadelphia Inquirer that he both forgives and supports Fetterman.

Fetterman has acknowledged he made a mistake, but he hasn’t offered a full-throated apology, concerning grassroots activists like the Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler, a top Philadelphia Democratic organizer {snip}

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