Just What the Quack Order: Dr. Oz Expected To Announce Running For Pennsylvania Senate

For Republicans hoping to capture the Senate from Democrats next year, Pennsylvania is crucial. Flipping a different state won’t help them if they can’t hang onto the chair that’s being vacated by the retiree Pat Toomey, and the one they hoped could protect it—Sean Parnell—Yes only complete his political fall after losing a custody battle amid alleged domestic abuse. (Parnell was refuse any wrongdoing.) That left Republicans looking for someone new to regroup in the swing.

Into that open field is … Dr. Oz. Correct, Mehmet Oz, television doctor, professor and famous quack science promoter, is expected to launch a bid for Toomey’s chair, Philadelphia Inquirer report, with an announcement of his candidacy coming as early as this week. There has been some talk about his political ambitions for a while, although it is not clear what his politics are. So far, he is said to be taking part in his early campaign and connecting with the state’s Republican Party leaders. According to TMZ, that quote “Source with direct knowledge” of the matter, Oz may make his official candidacy when appearing on Sean HannityFox News program where he has provided commentary on the coronavirus pandemic.

That commentary drew backfire. In the wake of Hannity in the early days of the pandemic, Oz was eerily cavalier about the prospect of rising COVID deaths that some feared at the time were due to reopening schools. learn; The total death toll rose by 2-3%, he told Hannity, which could be an “enticing opportunity” to “regain our spirits” as a society. He sorry for his dismissive remarks, but it’s just the latest controversy he’s run into since rising to fame as a frequent guest of Oprah Winfreyprogram’s. He promoted a long line of dubious cures, including hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID. (He has stepped back somewhat in favor of his drug, saying in one Fox and friends interview last year that “we’d better wait” to see how it performs in clinical trials; Studies have shown that malaria is inefficient against COVID-19.)

Oz has also conducted infamously television “physical” of the candidate then Donald Trump in 2016 in which he read more than two pages that the future president pulled from his pocket and claimed it was his medical records. Oz calls these records “comprehensive” and claims he is healthy. “If a patient of mine had these records, I would be happy and I would send them their way,” Oz said.

That didn’t quite end criticism of Trump’s lack of transparency, but it did endear him to Oz: Two years later, Trump inducts the famous doctor on the Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. and in 2020 he started asking for COVID advice from Oz. It is unclear whether Trump, who has previously endorsed Parnell, will support Oz’s expected Senate run. But he’ll enter the Republican mainstream with two clear advantages over his competitors – name recognition and deep pockets – even though he’s only recently changed addresses. his vote from New Jersey to Pennsylvania.

However, it’s not clear how seriously Republicans in Pennsylvania will take his candidacy: “I don’t know of a politically connected person in Pennsylvania who isn’t getting paid to want to join. join this effort,” a strategist at the state told Politico earlier this month, when the Oz rumor mill started buzzing. “No one thinks the solution to the Sean Parnell problem is Dr. Oz,” the strategist added, saying the “general reaction” to his potential candidate was “LOL.”

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