As a critic The Pennsylvania Senate race between Democratic Lt. Governor John Fetterman and Donald Trump-backed TV celebrity Dr. Oz rages on, with the former president coming to the same conclusion that many party pundits and bigwigs Tory caps arrived earlier this summer: Oz is very likely doomed.
He’s going to ‘fuck lose’ unless something drastically changes, Trump said privately of his chosen man in Keystone State, according to two sources who discussed the midterm elections with the ex. -President.
In recent weeks, some Trump allies have repeatedly pointed to polls for the former president showing Dr. Oz falling, sometimes by wide or double-digit margins, to his Democratic opponent. Trump has sometimes responded by asking advisers how it was possible that someone who had been so popular on television for so long was doing so poorly in the polls. When Trump asked if the poll had been “phony” or biased, several people close to him assured him that – as one of the sources describes it to rolling stone — “These are not ‘rigged’ polls, there are major problems with this campaign and, more particularly, with this candidate.”
This source adds that ‘Trump’s view is that it would be incredibly embarrassing for Oz if he lost to ‘this guy‘ because he thinks so little of [Fetterman]. He thinks Fetterman is in worse shape than Biden and has been hiding in his basement more [than Joe Biden].” (The Democratic Senate candidate is recovering from a stroke he suffered earlier this year, shortly before winning his primary.)
But it wouldn’t just be embarrassing for Dr. Oz. According to a third source with knowledge of the situation, the ex-president has gone so far as to ask privately over the past two months if it was a mistake to endorse Dr. Oz in the Senate GOP contest. Mehmet Oz narrowly beat David McCormick, husband of former Trump administration official Dina Powell, in a deadly primary that largely involved high profile candidates trying to outdo each other while begging for peace. Trump’s endorsement. His eventual blessing of Dr. Oz over McCormick annoyed various members of the GOP elite, Trumpland, and the “America First” base who viewed Dr. Oz as a bogus conservative or weaker candidate in the general election.
And having already helped drag Dr. Oz over the finish line in this primary, Trump looks set to try and do it again in the overall. Hours after this story was published on Friday, the former president announced he would be traveling to Pennsylvania for a September 3 rally in support of Doug Mastriano, Dr. Oz and — in his self-obsessed terms — the “the whole Pennsylvania Trump ticket”. ”
The Dr. Oz campaign did not respond to a request for comment from rolling stone Thursday. On Friday morning, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich insisted that the idea that Trump thinks Dr. Oz will lose is “fake news,” adding: “Dr. Oz has been on the campaign trail championing the America First agenda and working to win the support of all Pennsylvanians. By contrast, John Fetterman continues to champion radical policies that are destroying America.
A potential loss of Dr. Oz in the crucial state of Pennsylvania could help Democrats manage to hold the U.S. Senate at midterm in 2023. Prominent Trump supporters are well aware that Republican institutions still blame the twice impeached former president – and his obsession with the lies of the 2020 election “fraud” – for the the loss of the party of the Senate at the beginning of last year. A Trump-inspired redux of that mistake this year could risk damaging his self-proclaimed image as the most coveted supporter of American politics today, as well as his status as the titular leader of the GOP.
“The [former] the president used words like ‘ugly’ and ‘awful’ and ‘makes no sense’ to describe how Dr. Oz campaigned against John Fetterman over the summer,” said another Trump adviser who spoke to the former president. at least twice since June. “Weeks ago is when [Trump] first started asking me and other people, ‘Is he gonna fucking lose?’ I’m sure I’m not the only one telling him that he probably will if something important doesn’t change. The other source who recently discussed Dr. Oz with Trump said the ex-president predicted the candidate would lose unless he “get his act together,” the source said, paraphrasing Trump.
Dr. Oz faced a brutal series of self-inflicted injuries during the election campaign.
This week, The Daily Beast reported that Dr. Oz, who claimed to only own two homes, owns 10 properties spread across New York, Florida and Turkey. The Fetterman campaign, which sought to paint the former Oprah guest star as a wealthy, out-of-touch stranger from New Jersey, seized on the revelation, turning it into a multi-day news cycle.
Dr Oz’s attempts to capitalize on voter anger over inflation also backfired when he filmed himself inside a grocery store pointing out the rising cost of food. The video segment showed the Senate candidate in a chain of grocery stores, mispronounce the name of the store and buy a random assortment of “raw vegetables” like guacamole and asparagus while bemoaning the price of the items.
The video landed so badly with the public that Dr. Oz himself was forced to appropriate the pro-MAGA news channel, Newsmax, where the Senate candidate accused his missteps of being “exhausted.”
Of course, Trump isn’t the only one meddling in Oz skepticism right now. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has repeatedly quarrel with Trump for control of party tone, sought to temper expectations about the Republicans taking over the upper house, mentioning “quality of candidate” as a possible inhibitor. It’s still only August, but current polling data shows that the GOP’s fortunes look better at eventually regaining control of the House than the Senate. Top GOP lawmakers and operatives have for months been extremely concerned about Dr. Oz’s “candidate quality” and what they see as his lack of political charisma and his amateur to make a campaign. “Is he here to win? Does he think he will win? Because I don’t think he acts like that, and that’s not comforting,” said a well-connected GOP operative working on the 2023 races earlier this month. According to two sources familiar with the matter, various consultants and figures in the party and the Tory movement are also frustrated with Dr Oz for not having invested many more millions in his own election race, given that the famous television doctor would be worth over $100 million. It’s a factor that has some in the Republican elite wondering if Dr. Oz actually believes he’s going to win and is therefore worth the investment.
As Dr. Oz has fallen behind his rival Fetterman in successive polls, the National Republican Party has signaled that he shares Trump’s gloomy view of his chances. The Republican National Senate Committee recently ran ads for Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania, along with two other Senate races. In contrast, a McConnell-supporting super PAC plowed roughly $28 million in Ohio to support another Trump-endorsed candidate, JD Vance, who faces a close race with Democratic Representative Tim Ryan, according to a recent poll.
“President Trump was best served at a minimum by remaining neutral in the primary,” says Sam Nunberg, a former Trump adviser who has criticized Dr. Oz. “Instead, he wholeheartedly endorsed one of the most flawed candidates Republicans have nominated nationally.”