Oz Confronted in Brutal Newsmax Interview Over Viral ‘Crudité’ Clip: ‘Is Dr. Oz Relatable to the Everyday Hardworking American?’
Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, Mehmet Oz, underwent a brutal grilling Monday night on the hard-right Newsmax over a recent viral clip of the celebrity doctor buying vegetables for a “crudité” platter.
Anchor Shaun Kraisman introduced the topic, explaining just why the clip of Oz shopping for vegetables caused such a stir.
“And if I could talk to you and give you a chance for this, let’s talk crudité, if we can,” he began, repeating Oz’s use of the French word.
“As you know, this video went viral. You were at Wegmans going through the veggie aisle, essentially hitting on inflation and how things cost more, putting together a plate of crudité would cost you more than 20 bucks. You said that you were at Wagner’s this is a very popular local grocery in this region called Wegmans. Your response to this?” Kraisman said, before adding a little extra salt to the wound:
And not only the video that is making its round, Fetterman is campaigning off of it, he has raised quite a bit of money off of that video. But it does get to the factor: Is Dr. Oz relatable to the everyday, hardworking American there in Pennsylvania?
“I rolled my sleeves up my whole life, I’ve taken care of patients, saved lives, invented devices, I’ve started foundations where we take care of tens of thousands of teens around the country trying to help wherever I can. That’s what my life’s been about,” Oz responded.
“You know what 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 in the middle of a campaign,” Oz added trying to turn the tables on the use of the term.
“We’ll do whatever we need to do to make sure the people of Pennsylvania respect what we’re about and that we’re going to work as hard as we can to fix their problems. It’s what I’ve done my whole life. It’s what I’ll continue to do. I challenged my opponent. What have you done? Rolling your sleeves up in your own life to make life better for the people of Pennsylvania?” Oz continued.
Oz then offered a campaign pitch, concluding, “I’m the person who put us on the right track and addressed many of the challenges. Cost of living, crime, and our schools that afflict so many Pennsylvanians.”
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D-PA), Oz’s opponent, released a statement on Tuesday announcing the campaign has raised over $500,000 off the video – which Oz originally posted in April.
“… Fetterman’s campaign for U.S. Senate on Tuesday announced that it had raised over $500,000 since yesterday, when a viral video of Dr. Oz mispronouncing the name of a grocery store, struggling to grocery shop, and saying that the cost of ‘crudite’ had skyrocketed went viral,” Fetterman’s campaign said.
Fetterman, who has been trolling Oz on social media with memes and various attacks, tweeted the clip with the comment, “In PA we call this a… veggie tray.” Fetterman has consistently been leading the Trump-backed Oz in the polls and if he wins would be flipping a U.S. Senate seat from the GOP to the Democrats.
In PA we call this a… veggie tray https://t.co/nDp0Uw27zd
— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) August 15, 2022
Kraisman wasn’t quite buying Oz’s first answer to his questions and pushed him on the issue in a follow-up.
“I don’t mean to fixate on it, but just for those watching in Pennsylvania, you know how particular many people are about their groceries, what happened with Wegmans and Wagners? Can you explain that to them?” he asked.
“Yeah. I was exhausted. Well, 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,” responded Oz, who is not running for governor.
Watch the full clip above via Newsmax
