U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz, best known among Americans as the daytime TV host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” announced on Wednesday the Biden administration fired him from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition.
“One week and three different explanations later, President [Joe] Biden finally informed me today why he fired me from the Presidential Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition,” Oz, 61, said in a March 30 statement released by his campaign.
“This was a political firing because I’m calling out Biden’s failures on inflation, immigration, and COVID,” he added. “The Woke Left will not silence or stop me from being a bold, conservative voice in the U.S. Senate.”
Oz, who is running for office in Pennsylvania, received letters from the White House Office of Presidential Personnel earlier this month, asking him to resign or be terminated from the presidential council.
According to a White House official, Oz was asked to resign because he is in violation of the Biden administration’s policy to have federal candidates serve on boards. Oz, who is a Republican, was appointed in 2018 by President Donald Trump to serve on the council.
Oz said the Biden administration informed him that he was fired from the board “because it is customary to replace the council with members who share the President’s priorities.”
Another explanation provided by the White House said he had to resign due to the 1939 Hatch Act, a law that bars public officials from using their position to engage in political activity, Oz said.
On March 25, Oz responded to Biden’s request for his resignation in a written letter, saying he does not intend to resign as a member of the council and “health should never be politicized.”
“I do not engage in campaign activity while acting as a Council Member. My involvement was purely toward advocating for health awareness and empowerment—the engine of my life and work,” Oz wrote.
Oz, a longtime resident of New Jersey, on Nov. 30 announced he was running as a “conservative Republican” in Pennsylvania, describing himself as a health care advocate and as a top-notch surgeon.
“We are angry at our government and at each other,” Oz said in a statement in the Washington Examiner, announcing his candidacy.
“We have not managed our crises as effectively as past generations,” he wrote. “During the pandemic, I learned that when you mix politics and medicine, you get politics instead of solutions. That’s why I am running for the U.S. Senate: to help fix the problems and to help us heal.”
Last week, the Biden administration had also called on former football star Herschel Walker, another celebrity Republican Senate candidate, to resign from the council or be fired. Walker, who is running for office in Georgia, was also appointed by Trump in 2018 to serve on the council.