Exclusive–Dr. Mehmet Oz Blasts Democrat John Fetterman’s Radical ‘Soft-on-Crime Approach’

Pennsylvania’s Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Dr. Mehmet Oz, appeared on Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday with host Matthew Boyle where he offered his analysis of his debate with Democrat John Fetterman and blasted the Democrat’s radical record on crime.

Oz and Fetterman debated for the one and only time on Tuesday, in which the Democrat, who suffered a stroke in May, repeatedly struggled with his words and relied on a closed captioning system due to his auditory processing issues. While 82 percent of voters declared Oz the winner in a post-debate poll conducted by WPXI, Boyle asked Oz on Saturday to give his analysis of how the debate went.

“Well, surgeons are very disciplined, as you know,” said Oz. “We’re laser-focused on the patient in front of us, so my goal was to make sure that folks appreciated that I would bring balance to Washington and I would have to highlight some of the extreme positions taken by my opponent, John Fetterman, and I think I accomplished those goals.”

“That’s why I, over and over again, would, using his own words, articulate that John Fetterman said we should release one-third of all prisoners, or the major goal if you had a magic wand, was to get rid of life sentences for felony murder. And because of that, he’s voted many, many times, dozens of times, against the desires of even other parole board members to release murderers,” Oz added, referencing the Democrat’s chairmanship of Pennsylvania’s Board of Pardons as lieutenant governor.

WATCH: Democrat John Fetterman has called for releasing one-third of prisoners at least 7 times. pic.twitter.com/NF8onX8wu6

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 4, 2022

Under his watch, clemency recommendations for criminals facing life sentences from the five-person board to Gov. Tom Wolf (D-PA) skyrocketed. From March 2019 through April 2022, the board sent at least 46 commutation recommendations to Gov. Tom Wolf (D), as the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Julia Trerruso reported in May.

“That’s compared with just six in Wolf’s first term, none under former Republican Gov. Tom Corbett’s one term, and only five during former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell’s eight years in office,” Terruso wrote.

Oz took a deeper dive into Fetterman’s record on the board of pardons later in the interview.

LISTEN: 

“He’s set his mission statement as getting rid of lifetime sentences for felony murder,” said Oz. “It’s led him to, in dozens of cases, push for the release of people convicted of murder by a jury sentenced to life in prison by a judge. And then he’ll say things like, ‘Well, they learned yoga in prison, or they studied horticulture… It doesn’t sit with me that they could have done this crime,’ and then he’ll move to parole them. Now, there are other parole board members, and they’ll often say, ‘What are you talking about? There’s no way this person is getting out.'”

“And the families, of course, are always ignored in this process,” continued Oz. “And that’s why I keep… challenging Fetterman to be honest with… the fact that he seems to pay more attention… to the sentiments of the criminals than of the innocent. But he has threatened other parole board members if they don’t go along with him. So trying to strong-arm other parole board members also sends a message that he just thinks he knows more than other people, even if there’s no objective reason to think that’s the case. And that’s why this is emblematic of his weak on crime, soft on crime approach.”

Oz emphasized that he received the Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police endorsement over Fetterman  because “they don’t think that he has their back.”

“He’s undermined them in many other areas as well. He had taken positions that they just find reprehensible,” Oz added. “And I keep saying that I want to fund police, get them the equipment and the tools they need, allow them to talk to the federal government, because I don’t think sanctuary cities make sense.”