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Dr. Oz and McCormick Squabble Over Energy in GOP Senate Forum

Dr. Oz and McCormick Squabble Over Energy in GOP Senate Forum

Celebrity physician Mehmet Oz was forced to defend his conservative bona fides on energy issues in his first public appearance with former Bridgewater Associates Chief Executive Officer David McCormick in their hotly contested Republican primary race for a Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat. 

In response to a question about U.S. energy policy at a candidates’ forum hosted by the Manufacturer & Business Association in Erie, McCormick said that Oz has called for more regulation of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking -- a major issue in the commonwealth with its drilling industry -- in comments on his “Dr. Oz Show” and past columns.

“I’m sorry, that’s not true,” Oz shot back at McCormick. “That’s a lie, and you know it’s a lie.”

Dr. Oz and McCormick Squabble Over Energy in GOP Senate Forum

The McCormick campaign pointed to columns co-bylined by Oz and Dr. Mike Roizen in 2014, 2015 and 2018 about potential health risks from fracking that proposed a ban until health studies are done.

The Oz campaign said Oz has always supported fracking and has called for declaring domestic energy critical to national security. Oz and Roizen have different positions on fracking, and Roizen took over sole management of the daily columns in 2009 -- even though Oz’s name remained on them -- while failing to specify when he felt differently than Oz, the campaign said. 

McCormick’s allies have called Oz “a Hollywood liberal,” and candidate Kathy Barnette, a conservative political commentator, also called Oz “a liberal” during the forum -- drawing complaints from Oz about forum rules not being followed as the moderator tried to regain control.

Oz and McCormick are the two presumed front-runners in the crowded GOP primary contest on May 17 in the election to replace retiring Republican Senator Pat Toomey that will help decide party control of the U.S. Senate.

Dr. Oz and McCormick Squabble Over Energy in GOP Senate Forum

The two campaigns and the Super PACs supporting them have already set a record for primary spending in Pennsylvania in what could be one of the most expensive races in the U.S. this year. Oz and McCormick have spent $22.4 million on ads so far, and total spending for all the GOP candidates and their Super PACs is $43.2 million, according to AdImpact data. 

“We need to elect someone for this Senate seat who authentically believes the things they’re saying,” McCormick said during the forum. “So you need to pick someone who’s demonstrated those conservative principles through time and is going to take that set of consistent principles to Washington and fight for them.”

Oz, who’s holding an energy town hall on Wednesday with former U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who has endorsed him, and Harold Hamm, co-founder of shale giant Continental Resources Inc., said he gave up his television show and other business interests to run and is being attacked because he would bring a “a bold, loud voice” to Washington.

“I know what it means to make a difference. That’s what I’m going to do as the next senator from Pennsylvania,” Oz said. “We cannot have a back-bencher Republican senator. We need someone on the front lines.”

Both McCormick and Oz criticized the Federal Reserve’s approach to dealing with skyrocketing inflation. McCormick said Chairman Jerome Powell “should have been replaced,” and Oz said “I am dubious about the ability of a series of sequential interest-rate hikes to be able to control inflation without leading us into a recession.”

Real estate developer Jeff Bartos, the fourth candidate who participated in the forum, lamented how Oz and McCormick -- who he calls “political tourists” -- are spending millions of dollars in ads attacking each other and that “this campaign has devolved into fights on television.”

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