Where pot meets kettle: Oz’s flimsy attack on Fetterman’s finances | Editorial
The Republican nominee for Pa.'s U.S. Senate seat has tried to paint his Democratic opponent as an out-of-touch trust fund baby. It's a curious — if not hypocritical — tactic.
Mehmet Oz, the celebrity doctor turned Republican Senate nominee in Pennsylvania, owns mansions in Palm Beach, Fla., and North Jersey, along with a $1 million cattle farm in Florida and a $3.2 million estate he recently purchased in Montgomery County. Oz and his wife together are worth more than $100 million.
So, it is beyond absurd for Oz to try to paint his opponent, Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman, as some sort of out-of-touch trust-fund baby.
This is where the pot meets the kettle.
Oz called Fetterman a “pretend populist.” The TV show host thinks Fetterman is somehow misleading voters with his “just a dude” image because he wears hoodies and shorts — yet he grew up in a comfortable home and long received financial support from his parents. To be sure, Fetterman is not struggling to pay his bills, but he is nowhere near Oz’s financial cushion.
As lieutenant governor, Fetterman makes $271,610 a year. His financial disclosure form lists assets between $717,000 and $1.58 million, but up to $1 million is in bank accounts for his three children. That’s a portfolio most people would envy — but still dwarfed by Oz’s own.
Fetterman has never shied away from his affluent upbringing in York County. His parents married at age 19 and his dad became a successful insurance executive. They paid for Fetterman’s college education and supported him for many years as an adult. Their financial help enabled Fetterman to devote much of his life to public service.
» READ MORE: John Fetterman’s parents gave him money into his 40s. Republicans say that undercuts his blue-collar image.
Fetterman spent two years in the insurance industry but was moved to leave the private sector after a friend died in a car accident. He volunteered for Big Brothers, Big Sisters, mentored an 8-year-old boy who lost his parents to AIDS, and then joined AmeriCorps in Pittsburgh.
After earning a master’s in public policy at Harvard, Fetterman moved to Braddock to run a GED and life-skills program for high school dropouts. He said the job paid $33,000 a year. He then became mayor of Braddock, a borough about eight miles east of Pittsburgh.
Fetterman was mayor from 2006 to 2019. The job, which had few formal duties, paid $1,800 a year. During that time, Fetterman started a nonprofit, which focused on civic projects and charitable causes in Braddock, including a coat drive, a grant for surveillance cameras, and a headstone for a 2-year-old who was murdered.
It’s telling that Oz doesn’t get that Fetterman’s lived experience is actually an asset. Because Fetterman’s parents supported him financially, he could spend time in the trenches, providing an up-close understanding of the challenges Pennsylvania residents face. Despite a relatively meager legislative background, Fetterman has spent time in local and state government, which is something that’s missing from Oz’s resumé.
It’s also worth noting that Fetterman, who was reared in York, has deep roots in the commonwealth. Although Oz studied medicine and business at Penn and said that he moved to Pennsylvania in 2020, his ties to our state have been questioned.
» READ MORE: Mehmet Oz is a top Senate candidate in Pennsylvania. What are his ties to the state?
Oz tries to connect with voters by talking derisively about “elites.” He blamed “elite thinkers” for mishandling the pandemic: “Elites with yards told those without yards to stay inside, where the virus was more likely to spread.”
This coming from an Ivy League-trained doctor with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame who posed for a photo spread in People magazine while giving a video tour of his 9,100-square-foot, six-bedroom, eight-bathroom hillside mansion with an indoor basketball court, wine cellar, pool, and cabana in New Jersey.
Oz’s lavish lifestyle has left him with a distorted perspective on how the other half live.
Rather than ginning up a flimsy attack on Fetterman, Oz would be better served making his case why voters in Pennsylvania should support a celebrity doctor from New Jersey.