Morning Joe Hosts Poke Fun at Dr. Oz for ‘Crudité’ Campaign Video and Attempted Explanation for Botching Store Name
Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist, and Joe Scarborough all poked fun at Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz for a campaign video that went viral as well as a recent interview that Oz gave on Newsmax explaining a gaffe from said video.
The video shows Oz venturing into the produce section of a grocery store called “Wegners” — an invalid name that combined the chains “Wegmans” and “Redner’s” — and gathering supplies for his wife’s “crudité.” Oz read the prices of each item he picked up.
“Guys, that’s 20 dollars for crudité and this doesn’t include the tequila,” Oz said in the video. “I mean, that’s outrageous. And we got Joe Biden to thank for this.”
“Okay, so people blame Joe Biden for everything,” Scarborough said when MSNBC cut back to the hosts. “You’re now blaming Joe Biden for your crudité issues?”
Brzezinski then noted Oz’s grocery store mistake.
“Oz apparently meant for the video to highlight high prices at the grocery store,” Brzezinski said. “But the message that was lost on Oz [is that] appears to mix up the names of grocery chains ‘Redner’s’ and ‘Wegmans,’ saying that he is shopping at ‘Wegners.’ And he uses the term ‘crudité’ for what many simply call ‘vegetables on a tray.'”
“I’ve had a veggie tray before,” Scarborough said.
MSNBC then aired clips from Oz’s interview on Newsmax, where he was asked about the video.
“I joke about a crudité, which is a way of speaking about how ridiculous it is that you can’t even put vegetables on a plate,” Oz said. “In the middle of a campaign, we’ll do whatever we need to do to make sure the people of Pennsylvania respect what we’re about and we’re going to work as hard as we can to fix their problems.”
When asked about misstating the grocery store’s name, Oz blamed exhaustion.
“I was exhausted,” Oz said. “When you’re campaigning 18 hours a day — I’ve gotten my kids’ names wrong as well. I don’t think that’s a measure of someone’s ability to lead the Commonwealth.”
The cameras revealed the bemused expressions of the MSNBC hosts when the cameras returned to the panel, including those of Jonathan Lemire and Elise Jordan.
“I don’t know that that actually helps,” Scarborough said.
“That doesn’t help,” Geist said after a big chuckle.
“I just hope he at least remembered some ranch dip with all those vegetables that he claimed to buy at inflated prices,” Jordan said.
Watch above via MSNBC.
