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Trump gives nod to Dr. Oz — Analysis

Oprah’s TV doc is running for the US Senate seat vacated by a Pennsylvania Republican

Trump has supported Dr. Mehmet Oz, a TV personality and cardiac surgeon for a Senate seat. This was announced by his spokesperson on Saturday before a North Carolina rally.

Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has an incredible opportunity to save America. They can elect the well-respected and brilliant Dr. Mehmet O for the United States Senate,” the statement, posted to Twitter, reads. “All this is about winning elections so that the Radical Left-maniacs can stop our country from being destroyed.”

Dr. Oz reacts to Trump's taped admission of trying to downplay Covid-19

Trump elaborated on his endorsement during the rally, praising Oz’s Harvard education, “Amazing career opportunities” as a heart surgeon, and stage presence. “When you’re on television for 18 years, that’s like a poll. This means that people like you are on television for 18 years.,” Trump said.

The 61-year-old doctor, who hosted the eponymous ‘Dr. Oz Show’ for 13 seasons and was a regular guest on daytime television programs, left his show in January to run for the Senate seat left vacant following the retirement of Republican Senator Pat Toomey. Toomey sealed his political fate when he voted to convict Trump in the president’s impeachment trial over supposedly inciting an insurrection in response to the 2020 election results. Trump won the support of most members of his party, so Toomey was left with very little political support. He decided to not run again.

Trump praised Oz’s Republican bona fides, noting the doctor was “Pro-Life is very active on Crime, Border Fraud and Election Fraud and will continue to fight for our Second Amendment..” He also suggested Oz would have the kind of broad appeal necessary to win the election, arguing his TV presence would bring in voters from cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and his daytime talk show ubiquity would attract women, two groups Republican candidates sometimes struggle to reach.

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While Oz arguably owes his fame to his stint as the resident doctor on Oprah Winfrey’s daytime talk program, he reportedly asked Winfrey to stay out of the campaign, warning that she might otherwise get “hurt.” Oz has attracted a fair share of controversy over the course of his career, occasionally butting heads with Big Pharma and the GMO food lobby to the point where several prominent physicians banded together to attempt to block his appointment to Columbia University’s faculty. But, Columbia University favored the famous doctor by appointing him its Integrative Medicine Center Director. 

His campaign website lays on the medical metaphors thickly, describing “America’s heartbeat” as being “Code red: You need to use a defibrillator if you want to bring it back to health.” Oz claims to have been motivated to get into politics by “witnessing our nation’s failings of Covid,” noting that many of the pandemic deaths were “Avoidable” and referencing the institutional shutdown of dissenting medical opinions. 

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