President Donald Trump’s nominee for administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is not being applauded by everyone in the GOP.
Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley took to social media platform X Tuesday, calling out celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz’s past comments, including those showing the latter’s support for gender affirming care and abortion.
“I’ve been reading up on Dr. Oz – I see he’s praised trans surgeries for minors and supported hormone treatments & puberty blockers for kids in the past,” Senator Hawley posted.
I’ve been reading up on Dr. Oz – I see he’s praised trans surgeries for minors and supported hormone treatments & puberty blockers for kids in the past. And has also criticized state laws protecting life. I hope he’s changed his views to match President Trump! We need the Trump… https://t.co/lHg9TbIzgS
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) March 19, 2025
“And has also criticized state laws protecting life. I hope he’s changed his views to match President Trump! We need the Trump agenda at CMS,” he added in his post, linking to his press release account where a series of questions for Oz can be seen relating to past comments.
Senator Hawley’s written questions for Dr. Mehmet Oz, nominee for Administrator of CMS pic.twitter.com/8xquP0SICy
— Senator Hawley Press Office (@SenHawleyPress) March 19, 2025
Among those questions, Hawley brings up episodes of “The Dr. Oz Show” where Oz gave his support to parents helping their children transition, past comments Oz made about not wanting to “interfere” with doctors prescribing puberty blockers to children, and troubling comments showing his support for abortion.
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On the topic of abortion, Hawley cites an instance Oz stated a heartbeat of a fetus is just, “a little electrical exchange,” and comments made about abortions being part of, “difficult conversations” where Oz did not, “want the federal government involved with that, at all.”
As this position will have Oz oversee how Medicare and Medicaid dollars are spent, some of his questions also relate to if Oz would allow insurance to cover abortions.
Hawley raises some important questions — questions that have clearly hounded Oz in his recent political endeavors.
In 2022, Oz ran against Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. John Fetterman for that seat in a losing effort.
Just because Oz has an “R” next to his name doesn’t mean he’s a conservative.
On January 28th, President Trump signed an executive order titled, “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”
Here, Trump stated, “[I]t is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
A CMS administrator that supports harming children is antithetical to the Trump agenda. If Trump picked Oz, then the president feels his position is in the right camp, but Hawley should press him on this.
Hawley states Trump opposes federal funding for abortion. Again, Trump must feel Oz now supports that position.
There’s a lot of pressure on GOP senators to support Trump’s nominees as calls to have them “primaried” loom if they choose not to.
Hawley deserves applause for his courage in actually wanting to vet Oz to see where he stands now.
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