Conservative musician Kid Rock bashed Oprah Winfrey for attempting to thwart former protege Dr. Mehmet Oz’s Pennsylvania Senate campaign by endorsing his rival John Fetterman.
The talk television icon host hosted a virtual town hall on Wednesday, where she urged voters to “choose wisely for the democracy of the country,” and threw her support behind Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor ahead of midterms.
“At the beginning of the midterm campaigns, I said it was up to citizens to vote for who would represent them. If I lived in Pennsylvania, I would have already cast my vote for John Fetterman,” Winfrey stated.
“There are clear choices and some dynamic candidates who are working to represent the values that so many of us hold dear—like inclusion, compassion, and community.”
Though a prominent Democrat, the move has been perceived as being particularly painful to Dr. Oz, as Winfrey is notably responsible for his rise to fame.
The cardiac surgeon regularly appeared as a health expert on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” and the OWN founder created and produced 13 seasons of his daytime series “The Dr. Oz Show” through her production company Harpo Studios.
Republican artist Kid Rock thinks that Winfrey’s rejection of her frequent collaborator was exceptionally duplicitous.
“Oprah helped Dr. Oz with his career,” he tweeted on Saturday. “I assume because she vetted him and found him to be a wonderful person. Now she is against him. Oprah is a fraud.”
The “We The People” singer wasn’t the only one to call Winfrey out for spurning her longtime colleague.
“Oprah wouldn’t hire John Fetterman to screw in a light bulb but she wants to inflict him on PA and the rest of the country as a U.S. Senator,” scoffed podcaster Monica Crowley.
Conservative commentator Richard Grenell said that “betraying friends and anyone she’s worked with” was “on brand” for Oprah.
Newsmax hosts Diamond and Silk wrote that “Oprah endorsing Fetterman tells you everything you need to know about Oprah, where she stands, and what she stands for!”
Winfrey also endorsed Democrats in other key midterm elections during the “Virtual Voting Conversation” on Nov. 3.
She backed governor hopefuls Beto O’Rourke in Texas and Stacey Abrams in Georgia, along with congressional candidates in Florida, Wisconsin, Nevada, amongst others.
“If we do not show up to vote, if we do not get fired up in this moment, the people who will be in power will begin making decisions for us,” she remarked.
“Decisions about how we care for our bodies, how we care for our kids, what books your children can read, who gets protected by the police and who gets targeted.”