Is Gisele Fetterman the De Facto Candidate?

John really can't say

Over the weekend, yet another “news” outlet told the truth about John Fetterman’s Senate campaign. But unlike NBC News, Rolling Stone isn’t standing by its story. Or is it? Let’s take a look!

On Saturday, Rolling Stone’s Kara Voght published a puff piece on Gisele Fetterman, wife of the stroke-stricken prospective senator. And here’s how Voght promoted the story on Twitter:

That was at 10:30 AM. Within minutes, a lot of people asked what Voght meant by “de facto candidate.” Is John Fetterman running for the United States Senate, or is his wife? Is that how American political campaigns are supposed to work? There’s a candidate we’re asked to vote for, and then a de facto candidate who will actually do the job?

If Gisele Fetterman is the candidate, why isn’t she on the ballot?

By 11:06, that tweet had been deleted and replaced with this:

Kara Voght @karavoght

I wrote about @giselefetterman and her evolution from reluctant political spouse, to key surrogate for her husband as he recovered from a stroke, to a political force unto herself:

rollingstone.comJohn Fetterman Had a Stroke. Gisele Fetterman Became A Political StarThe former undocumented immigrant from Brazil never wanted a life in the spotlight. She didn’t have a choice after her husband was hospitalized

Ah, so now she’s a “key surrogate.” No more “de facto candidate.” But why?

Kara Voght @karavoght

I deleted a previous tweet sharing this story in which, in hindsight, I was imprecise with my word choices and what I intended to convey about Gisele’s role.

“Imprecise with my word choices.” Okay, so Voght didn’t mean to say Gisele Fetterman is the de facto candidate.

Er… then why is that wording still used in the Rolling Stone story?

“Imprecise word choice,” my sweet patoot. Voght accidentally told us the truth, and then she had to scramble to cover it up.

The journos are almost all Democrats, so they want the Democrats to win elections. They’ll say whatever they need to say for their team, no matter how humiliating. It’s really not more complicated than that.

Here’s the de facto candidate at work: