Running with a lead in a hotly contested Pennsylvania Senate GOP primary has made Dr. Mehmet Oz a target of political attacks, but former President Donald Trump warned Oz this would come for the political "outsider."
Oz is fighting them back and taking his case straight to the GOP voters in Pennsylvania in the final eight days before the primary concludes May 17, he told Newsmax.
"A lot of them want to clarify these fake ads that have been running against me," Oz told Monday's "Greg Kelly Reports" of his final days on the primary campaign trail. "And President Trump warned me.
"I don't blame him for warning me – now that I have understood it – he said: 'They're going to hate you because you're an outsider and the insider establishment will try to confuse people with these ads.'
"So I'm making sure they know exactly who I am and defending myself. I'll tell you it's going well. We've got a lead in the polls, and I'm gonna keep campaigning, running through the tape, the last moment of the last second on the 17th of May."
Not only has Trump endorsed Oz, but he has also gone on the attack against former President George W. Bush official David McCormick, who was running second in polling before Friday night's Save America rally. Trump did not hold back on criticizing Oz's primary rival in the primary race.
"I knew the president was getting upset because people were purposely supporting McCormick in order to hurt him," Oz told host Greg Kelly. "We saw it happen right after the announcement. They started running $3 million worth of ads a week – much of that money coming from people who did not like President Trump, some of it coming from Democrats, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer."
Oz took specific exception to attacks on his duel citizenship with the United States and Turkey.
"There are some things, liberties taken during the campaign," Oz continued. "There were criticisms launched by his campaign about my heritage. My parents are Turkish immigrants to this country. They came legally. My dad was recruited to come here because he was a doctor. We didn't have enough doctors in the '50s at the time.
While Trump's attacks are usually reserved for Democrats and people who do not support him – McCormick has said he has. Oz noted Trump saw it was important to defend his endorsed pick for the Senate GOP ticket in Pennsylvania.
"I think he felt that lines have been crossed," Oz concluded. "So he was more aggressive at that campaign [rally] than I expected."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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