The impending GOP Senate primary is turning out to be quite a beast, and that’s a surprise to everyone, including Dr. Oz. The former daytime TV host (who’s not hanging in Switzerland, despite what Marjorie Taylor Greene believes) must be sweating bullets after spending at least $12.4 million on his campaign and even pulling in the far-right-coveted endorsement of ex-President Trump. He’s freaking out, too, because “Ultra-MAGA” rival Kathy Barnette is surging in the polls and almost neck-and-neck with Mehmet Oz, mere days before the election.
In response, Sean Hannity spent the entirety of his Thursday night show melting down over Barnette’s “rise.” He trashed her far-right positions, which to be fair (according to summations from the Daily Beast and CNN) are incredibly unsavory. To be clear, though, Hannity has been a ride-or-die for Trump, despite all of his controversies, and the self-declared “talk show host” really seems like he’s mostly rattled about his guy (Oz) facing a last-minute upset due to Barnette’s “surge,” for which Hannity expressed disbelief.
Well, Laura Ingraham is in a different camp, possibly as part of the hilarious MAGA mutiny inspired by Trump’s Dr. Oz endorsement. She spent her Fox News hour describing how “doctored videos” have been used to smear Barnette.
Ingraham: A number of doctored videos have been shared in an attempt to smear Barnette.. pic.twitter.com/4j6RpILvdz
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 13, 2022
And then Ingraham trashed Oz himself. “But the more salient question is this,” she rhetorically asked. “With all his fame and all his celebrity and all his big endorsements, why hasn’t Dr. Oz been able to seal the deal with the Pennsylvania voters?”
Ingraham goes after Oz pic.twitter.com/02e7txvAHp
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 13, 2022
It’s a valid question from Ingraham, but as with Hannity, I have to wonder if Ingraham’s defending Barnette (who does, in fact, have a history of anti-Muslim and anti-gay remarks) simply because the white males are piling onto her while defending their white-male candidate. In other words, there are no winners here, at least until May 18 when voters do their thing.