Dr. Mehmet Öz, better known as "Dr. Oz" in the United States, where he shot to fame with his daytime talk show, announced Wednesday that the Biden administration removed him from President's Council on Sports, Nutrition and Fitness, after a "third explanation."
An Ohio-born U.S. citizen of Turkish descent, Öz is a Republican running for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania. He has been at odds with the Democrat administration over the decision announced earlier and had refused to step down as he was asked by the White House. The council also removed former football star Herschel Walker. Both men were appointed by Joe Biden's predecessor Donald Trump.
After the news broke out last week, Öz took to social media, claiming he was being removed for political reasons. A statement by Öz's Senate campaign website said Biden officially fired Öz "after a week of waiting and three different reasons from the White House demanding that Dr. Oz resign." The statement said the Biden administration had told Öz that he was removed from the council because it was "customary to replace the council with members who share the President’s priorities." This is the third explanation from the White House, following their previous claims that Dr. Öz must resign "due to the Hatch Act and later because of a Biden Administration internal policy," the statement said. The Hatch Act implemented in 1939 prohibits civil service employees in the executive branch of the federal government from engaging in some forms of political activity. Walker had also announced his candidacy in Georgia for a Senate seat last August, a few months before Öz formally announced that he was running for a seat.
“This was a political firing because I’m calling out Biden’s failures on inflation, immigration and COVID. The Woke Left will not silence or stop me from being a bold, conservative voice in the U.S. Senate," Öz said in a statement on his campaign website.
Earlier in his campaign, Öz had found himself at the center of a controversy due to his Turkish roots. Upon criticism of his dual U.S.-Turkish citizenship, which raised questions of conflict of interest, he announced that he was ready to renounce his Turkish citizenship.
