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Dr. Mehmet Oz said he would “welcome a meeting” about health care with Hakeem Jeffries after Fox News made him watch the Democratic leader blast him as a “rando” and a “joke.” During Oz’s appearance on America Reports Tuesday, co-host John Roberts informed the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that Jeffries had said “some rather unkind things about you”—before rolling the clip of Jeffries in question. “That’s like the most random way to start a question on a serious topic, nobody who’s serious in this country takes Dr. Oz seriously—no one,” Jeffries, 55, replied. The New York congressman called it “shocking” that Oz—a failed Senate candidate who promoted dubious weight loss products and alternative therapies on his TV program, The Dr. Oz Show—“was even confirmed.” “I have no idea what Dr. Oz is talking about and neither do the American people,” Jeffries said. “I’m not going to respond to any comments from randos like Dr. Oz, who is woefully unqualified to be in whatever position he holds in the administration. He’s a joke, these people are a joke.” Oz wore a wry smirk as Fox News cut back to him at the end of Jeffries’ 23-second clip diatribe. Roberts quickly pivoted to rattling off a bullet list of Oz’s “potential qualifications,” including his education at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania and his career as a professor and cardio-thoracic surgeon at Columbia University. “Do you want to take a moment here to respond to the minority leader?” Roberts asked Oz. “Jeffries panicked,” Oz said. “You know, he didn’t understand the message, that’s an important one, so he tried to attack the messenger with an ad hominem approach.” Oz went on to say that he would like to meet with Jeffries to discuss “saving” Medicaid and the ACA. He argued the Democratic leader’s insults are “not how you deal with the challenges that 24 million people are facing now because the Democratic Party has not been able to put forward a program that could work.” Oz is referring to the millions of ACA enrollees who will see their health care premiums skyrocket if ACA subsidies are allowed to expire at the end of the year. Democrats had refused to support a government funding bill without an extension, triggering the longest shutdown in history, until eight senators broke ranks and voted to reopen the government on Monday. The Daily Beast has reached out to Jeffries’ office for comment.
