WATCH: Don Lemon Praises Fetterman Interview Performance, Says ‘I Was Expecting Worse’ And ‘People Will Be More Empathetic’

CNN anchor Don Lemon praised Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor and Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman over his performance in their interview, remarking that Fetterman exceeded expectations set by an uproar over last week’s debate.

Last Tuesday night, Fetterman and Oz participated in a televised debate that became the subject of heated commentary on Fetterman’s performance, a dispute over the closed-captioning tech used in the debate to accommodate Fetterman, and speculation about his condition. Coverage of the debate has dominated politics ever since.

On Tuesday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, Lemon spent a good chunk of his exclusive interview with Fetterman — which he noted was facilitated with the use of closed captions — asking about the debate and about Fetterman’s condition.

Following that chunk, Lemon told co-anchors Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow that both he and his mom were surprised by Fetterman’s performance, given his condition and the crush of negative attention to it:

DON LEMON: Look, we have more of the Fetterman interview coming up throughout the hours here on CNN and CNN This Morning. But just so everyone knows, at home, our team has been in touch with Dr. Oz, with the campaign numerous times. We put in requests. So far they have said no, they’ve declined that. We would love for him to join us on CNN This Morning before election.

POPPY HARLOW: Any day, any time would be great to have.

KAITLAN COLLINS: This interview was really interesting, though, because that has been one of the biggest questions since that debate. It’s their only debate that they were going to have. Of whether or not Fetterman should have done it. There were some, even Democrats that we had heard from who said they thought maybe he should have not done it. But he was saying there that he basically made the argument that he believed it was better to come out and be transparent. Well, we’ll find out if it paid off in about a week.

DON LEMON: But it’s interesting. He doesn’t believe in the interview. He doesn’t believe that it has hurt him. And I don’t know if they have internal polling that shows that, but he says that my polling shows that that having that debate hasn’t hurt. But it’s interesting when you talk to people, they say, you know, it’s not a big deal. People often say things to people who are doing polling that they don’t necessarily, it doesn’t mean that they’re going to vote that way. But I always say that my mother is my one-woman focus group. Yes.

POPPY HARLOW: And what’d she say?

DON LEMON: Said she said I was expecting worse. Having dealt with people who have strokes, I did not think he did badly at all, as you know, the press has been putting out. She said he thought he did fine.

But again, the people of Pennsylvania will decide this. And I have to be quite honest, I didn’t have the same reaction as most people.

Like, most people are like, oh, my gosh, I can’t believe it.

You know, Oz is know doing such a great job with him. Dr. Oz, of course, is a smart man and did a great job.

But I actually thought, I was expecting worse from Fetterman. I was. And I think that people will be more empathetic than we in the media may be letting on, too, because they have people who have dealt with these issues.

Again, that doesn’t mean that they would they would vote for him. He is running to be a senator. And that’s a you know, it’s a big job.

POPPY HARLOW: And this is look, this is his health issue is a real issue. It matters. It’s sucking up a lot of the oxygen of the conversation. But what I like about your interview that our viewers are going to see ahead, you get into some of the really key issues like energy, like fracking, a lot of the issues and press him on them, you’re going to see that.

KAITLAN COLLINS: And that’s why that’s so important, because it’s not just about it’s not the debate and what happened there. It’s how he would actually govern…

POPPY HARLOW: How will you vote on these issues? Right. If you if you are in the Senate, for sure.

Watch above via CNN This Morning.