March 8, 2022

Medical doctor, TV personality, and political hopeful Dr. Mehmet Oz was in Concord Township Tuesday as part of his campaign to run for the U.S. Senate. Oz wants to get on the Republican Party ballot for the May primary.

He told about 100 people in a meeting room at the Comfort Inn at Routes 1 & 202 that Republicans and Democrats speak different languages.

“Democrats care about caring; Republicans care about fixing things,” he said, adding that “Republicans need to stop bringing index cards to knife fights.”

He took a familiar conservative approach when talking about Democrats, calling them “woke warriors” who are taking over all the institutions.

“They firmly believe what they believe, but it’s not what I believe and not what conservatives embrace. So if we don’t show up and start protecting what’s happening in our schools, public institutions, and our arts and even what’s being believed in Washington, we’re not going to fix the problems.”

He said Washington keeps getting things wrong, but it’s the reason Washington gets it wrong that concerns him.

“Washington is getting it wrong because don’t agree with our values.”

Oz said he wants to run for the Senate because “America is in crisis. I’m a doctor. I run to the fire. That’s my instinct, my calling.”

He said he started his television show to let people know how much power they have regarding their own health but are kept ill-informed by big pharma and mainstream media. And that led to him fighting those who wield power.

“On television, I started talking about issues that got people uncomfortable. Organized medicine didn’t like it. Big Pharma got upset. I went to war with agri-chemical companies because they were being dishonest about pesticides. I went to war with big tech because they’re lying, claiming I was selling products that I wasn’t. I went to war with the government over arsenic in apple juice. … We won all those battles. I can be that bold, loud voice that Pennsylvania needs.”

Oz is not apologetic when it comes to his stance on issues. He opposed and still does oppose mandatory masking and vaccines. He said one of the worst things that happened was the silencing of doctors who were critical of the government’s handling of COVID.

“The government said things through a top-down authoritarian approach, which didn’t make us safer. The mandates did not help our country cope with COVID. [They] shut down debate, did not let people talk, and we now know that [Dr. Anthony] Fauci communicated with the media to take out respected leaders who had things to say. … By silencing any critics who had other opinions, it caused a crisis.”

He went on to say that doctors were taken out of the equation and not allowed to treat patients how they thought best. Anything out of the norm, such as Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin, were shot down. Doctors weren’t even allowed to study whether they were effective.

“They stopped the studying of these products so we couldn’t learn,” Oz said.

He said energy policy is also a problem because Washington is still getting things wrong.

The United States is “abandoning allies in Europe and empowering the Russians. So now we’re negotiating with the Iranians, the dictatorship there that is an existential threat to Israel, and the Venezuelans who aren’t good players just to get oil. We’re not freeing our own natural gas producers in Pennsylvania to go back to work.”

He added that getting natural gas producers back to work here in the U.S. is a national security issue and would help the economy.

“The reason I’m running for the Senate, and the reason you should vote for me, is I’ve fought in the biggest playing fields there are. I know what it feels like, I can take a punch, and I know how to counter punch.”

Oz said he’s a firm believer that life begins at conception and is pro-life. He also believes in term limits and said he would serve no more than two terms if elected.

Primary election day in Pennsylvania this year is May 17. Current Sen. Pat Toomey is not running for another term. Oz is one of 12 Republicans wanting the GOP nomination. There are 10 Democrats who want their party’s nomination.