Pompeo Says Trump-Backed Dr. Oz Raises ‘National Security Concerns’ — Oz Campaign Slams As Dual Loyalty Trope
Nicholas Kamm/Pool, Getty Images
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters on a call hosted by Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick and slammed Dr. Mehmet Oz’s ties to Turkey as raising “national security concerns.” Oz’s campaign quickly denounced the remarks as akin to dual loyalty “tropes used against Catholics and Jews.”
Oz, who has the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, is running against former hedge fund boos McCormick in the hotly contested GOP primary to replace retiring Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA).
“We criticize American candidates all the time because they didn’t vote,” Pompeo said on the call, according to the Hill. “This is different from that. Not only did he not engage in the American [process] but he engaged in the Turkish political process. That raises in my mind a lot of judgments about his priority.”
Pompeo was referring to a report from ABC News this week detailing security experts’ concerns regarding Oz’s decision to vote in the 2018 Turkish elections – just two years after Turkey’s President Erdogan violently suppressed a coup and began a purge of critics.
“Maybe it’s all innocent, maybe it’s all straight up, but we and the people of Pennsylvania and the Americans who he will be representing as one of the 100 members of the United States Senate voting on important national security matters need to understand the scope and depth of his relationship with the Turkish government,” Pompeo added.
“This isn’t about whether it’s lawful, it’s about who is best suited to be the next United States Senator from Pennsylvania that’s been represented by a patriotic American conservative for an awfully long time,” Pompeo concluded.
McCormick also has deep ties to Trump’s world as his wife, Dina Powell, served as Trump’s deputy national security advisor for strategy, which has helped fuel the divide among Trump loyalists in the race.
Oz’s campaign quickly denounced Pompeo’s remarks on Friday calling them “pathetic and xenophobic.”
“Now that he lost President Trump’s endorsement, he’s resorted to sad and desperate attacks that are no different than the tropes used against Catholics and Jews,” said Oz’s communications director Brittany Yanick said in a statement.
“Dr. Oz has already said when elected to the Senate he would renounce his citizenship. There is no security issue whatsoever, and David McCormick knows that Dr. Oz has maintained his dual citizenship to make it easier to help care for his mother who has Alzheimer’s and lives there.”
