“Grifter” and “liar” Dr. Mehmet Oz is running for senate in Pennsylvania. His ads have started to run on TV and he’s made the obligatory appearances on Fox News, but his campaign headquarters isn’t exactly a bustling hotspot. It technically exists in Montgomery County, PA, but when New York magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi went to visit for a profile, she discovered “there was no discernible election-related activity of any kind. No staff. No yard signs. No signs of life at all.” His campaign manager refused to comment as well, so Nuzzi reached out to Dr. Oz and his wife Lisa directly.
“How did you get my number?” she asked sharply. I told her that her number was listed in public records, and this annoyed her too. “Oh,” she said, “I should have gotten rid of that.” I was about to explain that public records don’t work that way, but she cut in. “Have a nice day,” she said, but it sounded like a cross between the way women of the South say “Bless your heart” and men of Brooklyn call some asshole “pal” after being cut off in traffic. Then she hung up.
Except she didn’t. Mrs. Oz “had mistakenly connected her device to what sounded like the sound system of a vehicle, meaning that as they engaged in paranoid conversation and argument for more than four minutes, I remained on the line, hearing every word of it.” Nuzzi heard Dr. Oz accuse her of making things up (“Y–y–you know what it’s — it’s — it’s called, it’s called lying also. It’s called being a liar”), and Mrs. Oz call her a “f*cking girl reporter.” Rudy would be proud.
Dr. Oz also lashed out at Michelle Bouchard, a friend who Nuzzi interviewed a few days prior. “She said things she shouldn’t have f*cking said. She shouldn’t have f*cking said,” he fumed. “She said sh*t she shouldn’t have said! That I was going to be the next leader of the Republican Party… That Michelle told her I’m going to be the next leader of the Republican Party, sh*t like that, that’s what you told me she said!” Bouchard actually said that “the new Republican Party is emerging, and the new Republican Party is going to be great,” but this was enough for Dr. Oz to insist that he and Lisa “lock our door.”
The call ended shortly after that, but then Nuzzi’s phone rang. “It was Lisa Oz,” she wrote. “I picked it up and said hello. She paused, then she hung up on me. This time she was successful.” You can (and absolutely should) read the profile here.
(Via New York)