Dr. Oz’s Meeting with Grieving Black Community Member was Staged

A candid moment at a recent campaign event hosted by Dr. Mehmet Oz is being called into question.

A grieving woman from the Black community, who was comforted by Dr. Oz, was also a paid campaign staff member.

Sheila Armstrong, was featured prominently at a Sept. 19 campaign event billed as a “community discussion,” during which she told the story of the fatal shootings of her brother and nephew.

Oz went on to comfort Armstrong during the event while he hugged her and asked her what coping mechanisms does she use to get through her traumatic past.

However, the campaign failed to let everyone know that while Armstrong’s grief was very real, she worked for Oz and the encounter was more staged than anyone would suspect.

The campaign manager for Oz’s Democratic opponent, John Fetterman, shared a screenshot of the woman’s business card on Twitter, which identifies her as a “Philadelphia County Coordinator,” with a doctorozforsenate.com email address.

It was also reported that a campaign commercial for Oz was filmed that day and released two weeks later and features at least two of the participants in the Philadelphia event, including Armstrong.

Armstrong’s story serves as a heartbreaking reminder of the human toll of gun violence. However, the Oz campaign misled reporters who attended the invitation-only discussion where Armstrong was a featured speaker, by failing to disclose her affiliation with the campaign.

Oz has been in a heated Senate race in Pennsylvania ever since he announced his candidacy last November and won the Republican primary in June.

He’ll now take on Fetterman, the state’s lieutenant governor, in the November election, a race that could help turn the tides of the evenly split Senate.

Though he rose to national prominence as a cardiothoracic surgeon/television personality, in recent years, Oz has pushed forward into far-right politics, dropping the veil of neutrality he stood behind for most of his career.

Now under the watchful eye of everyone, Oz regularly faces criticism for his motives, beliefs, and questionable medical record. This includes a recently discovered scandal involving the cruel treatment of animals by Columbia University research teams that Oz oversaw.

Oz has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, who said, “I’ve known him for many years, as have many others, even if only through his very successful television show. He has lived with us through the screen and has always been popular, respected and smart. Harvard-educated, tremendous, tremendous career and they liked him for a long time. That’s like a poll. You know, when you’re in television for 18 years, that’s like a poll. That means people like you.”