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"Trump Endorses Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania Senate Race" Transcript:
David Bozell: Okay, Trump's endorsement of Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania for Pennsylvania Senate. Man, I wish...I mean, everyone is scratching their heads on that one. I mean, it's kind of an inexplicable endorsement. Oz doesn't even live in Pennsylvania. I'm not sure how he is going to figure that one out. He doesn't seem to have a real base of support there at all.
He's in a three-way horse race. There's a conservative woman there who's got the goods, and I think her name is...her name escapes me now. Kathy Barnette I think. She seems to have the goods. And then there's this guy, David McCormick, who a number of ex-Trump staff are working with and for, including Hope Hicks. And then there's Mehmet Oz, the doctor fellow who was a big fan of Oprah's...or Oprah was a big fan of his.
But he's all over the place. I mean, he's just got a zillion clips associated with him with regards to abortion, pro-transgender stuff. And yeah, I'm a little torn, because Trump had a zillion clips, particularly on being pro-abortion, prior to becoming a politician, and then he had a kind of "Road to Damascus" conversion. So, you have to allow for that. You have to allow Dr. Oz to have that kind of conversion...
I don't understand why people are so obsessive about Trump's endorsements and who he endorses. I mean, I get the political dynamics, in some respect. I mean, I actually think there's some wisdom in him not endorsing. He doesn't have to endorse every bloody race. And maybe there's some wisdom in saying - "Look, I don't really like anybody here, I'm not sold, best of luck, but nobody gets it." If he wasn't a fan.
Clearly there was something about Oz. I think they met last week. And this guy McCormick also met with the former president, seeking the endorsement. And clearly there was something about Oz that Trump liked.
Now, Trump's endorsements are not bulletproof. I mean, he endorsed Mitt Romney after Mitt Romney trashed him when he was about to receive the nomination. Mitt Romney gave this speech that the press just fawned over. I think he said that Trump was unfit to hold the office. That was the money line from Mitt Romney. And then Trump ends up winning the nomination. Oh yeah, that's what it was. It was prior to Trump really securing it. And it was a three-horse race between Rubio and Cruz and Trump. And Kasich was out there too. And then there was this dynamic where if you just went for Kasich in Ohio and Rubio in Florida, then it would've prevented Trump from getting the nomination. Or at least holding him off for another week.
And so the establishment had banded together with this last ditch plan. And they throw Romney out there who said, look, you've got to just divide your vote. Don't worry about if your guy doesn't win the nomination, just worry about stopping Trump from getting it. And we'll figure out the rest. That was Mitt Romney's contribution to the 2016 race.
Trump brings him in. He wins the nomination, and Trump actually has Romney on a short list for secretary of state. That famous picture of Romney walking out of Trump Bedminster in the summer of 2000..., excuse me, had to have been around Thanksgiving of 2016. Anyway, a famous picture of Romney walking out of the front door. Romney doesn't get the secretary of state gig. Then ends up running for Senator of Utah, and Trump endorses him, inexplicably.
And it's come back to bite him, at least in some sense. In the sense that his endorsements are not all always correct. But I don't put a lot of stock into it. I know a lot of people do. When you're trying to focus on the things that matter, I just don't think that's one of them. It was obviously something between the two men. It would be really shallow to think, well, maybe Trump saw Oz's celebrity status and didn't want the celebrity Oz to think that he could win without the bigger celebrity, Trump, endorsing him. But that would be really shallow and really, I think, beneath Trump. But at the end of the day, it's between the two men.
I don't think it's going to help Oz in any discernible way. I don't think he can win a general, anyway. I think if he wins the primary, I guess you could point to Trump's endorsement as giving him a leg up. But it sounds to me, from people that I talked to on the ground up there, that he won't. So, that remains to be seen. But I guess, don't put too much stock into this stuff. It was obviously a private conversation between the two men, and it'll flesh itself out in time.
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