Dr. Oz Can’t Stop Getting Owned By John Fetterman on Twitter

Sarah RumpfJul 20th, 2022, 6:30 pm
 
Dr. Mehmet Oz takes a selfie at Hollywood Walk of Fame

Photo by JC Olivera/Getty Images.

John Fetterman is having a lot of fun on Twitter at the expense of Dr. Mehmet Oz, his Republican rival for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat, and Oz can’t seem to stop stepping on rakes in his attempts to fight back.

Fetterman, who currently serves as the Keystone State’s lieutenant governor, has made Oz’s longtime residency in neighboring New Jersey a core part of his campaign messaging, mocking Oz as a millionaire celebrity out of touch with Pennsylvania’s blue collar voters.

One of Fetterman’s most memorable Twitter zingers was replying to an Oz campaign video to point out it was filmed at his New Jersey mansion that was profiled in People.

The LG also hired Nicole Lavalle, better known as Snooki from Jersey Shore, to record a Cameo video for him to tweet at Oz, an online service that allows people to buy “personalized video messages” from celebrities. “Jersey will not forget you…And don’t worry! Because you’ll be back home in Jersey soon. This is only temporary. So good luck. You got this! And Jersey loves you. Mwah!” Lavalle enthusiastically says in the video, ending with her blowing a kiss to the camera.

Fetterman has deployed a veritable parade of well-known memes against Oz, ridiculing his attempts to distance himself from former President Donald Trump, a typo he made misspelling the name of his hometown on his statement of candidacy, and other missteps.

He’s also taken several of Oz’s social media posts from the campaign trail and pointed out how the television doctor is acting more like a “tourist” than a local, and hired an airplane banner to taunt Oz. Nearly every Oz post invites a joke from Fetterman and a pile-on from his supporters.

Philadelphia Magazine editor-at-large Ernest Owens, who has been covering Fetterman’s campaign since last year, wrote a long Twitter thread that lauded the Democrat’s Twitter warfare as a savvy strategy because he was “maximizing all of his resources (grassroots, social media, fundraising, outreach) very well,” so to dismiss the irreverent tweets as merely “successful shitposting” was “intellectually dishonest and misses what he’s been doing all along.”

The “Dr. Oz memes are fun,” but they are also bolstering Fetterman’s fundraising, a key asset in his primary victory and essential for his effort to flip the Senate seat blue, Owens continued.

Fetterman’s messaging overall has been “resonating with voters,” argued Owens, and the combination of his TV ads, social media posts, and grassroots fundraising are “the perfect potion to crush Oz and it’s showing in the polls.”

One sign of a successful campaign messaging strategy is when it gets picked up by supporters who offer their own contributions to the theme. Oz’s social media post from the famed Philly cheesesteak venues drew a rebuke from one of them, Pat’s King of Steaks, tweeting back to ask him, “Do you even live in Pa?”

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.