Dr. Oz declares himself a 'police surgeon' in performative campaign video

19 July 2022

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly emphasized that defunding the police is neither her position nor a part of the official Democratic Party platform. But that isn’t stopping MAGA Republicans from claiming that Democrats in general want to defund the police, or even making that accusation against some Republicans — including Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is running against Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in Pennsylvania’s 2022 U.S. Senate race.

Although Oz has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, some of his Republican critics have accused him of allying himself with proponents of defunding the police. And Oz goes out of his way to express his opposition to defunding the police in a bizarre, highly performative campaign video posted on July 18.

The video depicts Oz, at a public event, hugging the mother of a 28-year-old police officer as melancholy music plays. Choked up with emotion, she says, “I just wanted to know what your thoughts were on defunding the police. It breaks my heart. It really does. It’s really hard to for me every day to watch him go out there and know that he’s more at risk than under normal circumstances because the government is not standing behind him at all. But you do.”

Oz, in response, asks the crowd, “How many people here think we should defund the police? That doesn’t make any sense at all. I’m a police surgeon. I’ll fight for the people who are fighting to protect us. It makes no sense to disrespect people who are risking their life for me.”

With Oz continuing to hug her, the woman, still emotional, tells him, “Thank you, thank you.”

Oz has been claiming that “the left wants to defund our law enforcement.” But in fact, a long list of prominent Democrats — from Pelosi to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former NYPD officer, to the Rev. Al Sharpton — have stressed that while they favor police reform, they are adamantly opposed to defunding law enforcement. Pelosi, during a February interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, said of defunding the police, “That’s not the position of the Democratic Party, with all due respect to (Rep.) Cori Bush. Community safety to protect and defend in every way is our oath of office.”

Watch Oz’s video below or at this link.

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