Oprah Winfrey crowned him “America’s Doctor,” but Mehmet Oz, better known on daytime TV and Fox News as “Dr. Oz” wants to become Senator Oz, despite what many might see as insurmountable liabilities.
Oz has an MD and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania, but he has spent years promoting what even one right wing website calls “quack solutions,” including hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19, a debunked “cure.”
The headlines alone are damning. Here’s just a small sampling:
Why Is Alleged Quack Dr. Oz the Face of NBC’s ‘Coronavirus Crisis Team’?
The Case of Dr. Oz: Ethics, Evidence, and Does Professional Self-Regulation Work?
The American Medical Association is finally taking a stand on quacks like Dr. Oz
‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Are Furious ‘Dangerous Quack’ Dr Oz Is Hosting the Show
Physicians Urge Columbia To Fire Dr. Oz For Promoting ‘Quack Treatments’
Even the right wing website The Washington Free Beacon ran a damning report on Oz’s Senate run exploration.
Essentially likening him to a carpet-bagger, Free Beacon calls Oz a “Cleveland-born, Delaware-raised, and New Jersey-based” … “political newcomer who has donated to both Democrats and Republicans.”
He owns a mansion—and is registered to vote—in neighboring New Jersey and bought a vacation home in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2015, according to public records. He does not own property in Pennsylvania, at least under his own name.
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Oz has a non-permanent voter registration in Pennsylvania connected to a Montgomery County address that appears to belong to his mother-in-law.
“Critics,” the outlet adds, “are likely to home in not only on Oz’s flimsy ties to the Keystone State but also on the quack solutions—miracle cures for everything from fat loss (raspberry ketones, green coffee beans) to longevity (red palm oil)—that he has hawked to an enormous audience amidst serious and sensible medical advice.”
Oz, they add, has “developed a relationship with the country’s president, the strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan.”
Erdogan, a Trump favorite, is widely viewed as an anti-democracy authoritarian dictator.