The White House has officially requested that Dr. Mehmet Oz—the wellness industry quack and TV personality known professionally as Dr. Oz—resign from his post on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition, or else be removed from it.
Dr. Oz was appointed to this council in 2018 by Donald Trump (and reappointed in 2020) and he’s exactly the sort of awful huckster you’d expect to be endorsed by Trump. Dr. Oz has made his living pushing dangerous and baseless wellness claims on daytime television. He’s had his hand in everything from absurd weight-loss trends to conversion therapy to curing and preventing cancer through diet. So no, it’s not surprising Trump loves him. It’s only surprising that it took Biden this long to kick him off the council.
Unfortunately, the decision to remove Oz wasn’t actually due to Oz’s dangerous medical claims, which have only increased in the COVID-19 era. Rather, it’s because Oz is currently running for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania and the Biden administration has a policy against federal candidates serving on presidential boards. (That’s what a White House official told CNN, although the policy appears to simply be an enforcement of the Hatch Act—which prohibits most federal employees from engaging in certain types of political activities—not something unique to this administration.)
Still, that didn’t keep Oz from throwing a tantrum on Twitter and heavily politicizing the request for his resignation.
“Clearly, Joe Biden can’t be around anyone who doesn’t completely fall in line with his fear-mongering authoritarian one-size-fits-all COVID handling. I am proud of my service and will not resign,” Oz wrote.
“It’s sad that he would politicize such an important issue like health,” Oz wrote in another tweet before proceeding to politicize health, adding, “The doctor he should ask to resign is Dr. Fauci, for a multitude of obvious reasons.”
Oz is not the only Senate candidate Biden asked to resign. Ex-football player, mental health advocate, and extreme right-wing Trump devotee Herschel Walker got the same letter as Oz, requesting his resignation or stating he’ll be kicked off the council. Walker took to Twitter to accuse Biden of trying to thwart his campaign against Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock. That line of logic is hard to track, though—it’s not clear how removing him from this committee helps Warnock in any way.
Both men have said they won’t resign so Biden will have to remove them. I don’t see that exactly being a problem.
(image: JC Olivera/Getty Images)
