Fetterman and Oz Should Debate Before the Voting Starts

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) suffered a massive stroke in 2012. He had to relearn how to walk, write and speak. It took him nearly a year before he was able to return to the Senate. He suffered permanent paralysis on his left side and used a cane and wheelchair. The stroke left him with halting speech — and in 2016, USA Today reported that he “blurted out a series of gaffes last year that he later walked back, leading some to question if his stroke was to blame.”

Yet during his 2016 reelection campaign, Kirk participated in two debates with his Democratic opponent, then-Rep. Tammy Duckworth. In the first, the Chicago Tribune reported, Kirk “delivered short answers … and sometimes offered non sequiturs in response to questions.” In the second, he mocked Duckworth’s ethnicity and family history of military service.

Kirk lost his reelection. But he appeared on the debate stage nonetheless.

Continue reading in The Washington Post.