It’s not the first time the vocally conservative artist has come for Winfrey
Kid Rock called Oprah Winfrey “a fraud” for her endorsement of Democratic candidate John Fetterman against Republic opponent and her former frequent talk-show guest, Dr. Mehmet Oz, in the election for the open US Senate seat in Pennsylvania.
Oprah threw her support to Fetterman during the host’s “A Virtual Voting Conversation” event on November 3rd despite her long working relationship with Oz, who regularly appeared as a celebrity doctor guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Winfrey shared that “if I lived in Pennsylvania, I would have already cast my vote for John Fetterman, for many reasons.”
In a post via Twitter, Kid Rock reacted to the endorsement by attempting to invalidate Oprah’s overall decision-making abilities. “Oprah helped Dr. Oz with his career,” he wrote. “I assume because she vetted him and found him to be a wonderful person. Now she is against him. Oprah is a fraud.” Though chronologically sound, his argument misses the mark by somehow equating a television production’s hiring decision from over two decades ago to lifelong support of a former coworker’s politics.
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The “American Bad Ass” artist previously targeted Winfrey during a drunken rant in 2019 when he was caught on camera saying, “F**k her, she can suck d**k sideways.” The backlash to Kid Rock’s comments later forced him to end a licensing deal for his hometown Detroit restaurant. The decision was announced in a statement in which he copped to being “a loud mouth jerk” and not racist before directing insults at Al Sharpton and his “cronies.”
Oz himself responded to Winfrey’s rebuke of his candidacy on Saturday during an interview with Fox News anchor Brian Kilmeade. According to Mediaite, the host asked Oz if he felt bothered after he had “asked [Oprah] to stay on the sidelines,” to which he responded, “No. I love Oprah… She and I have different politics, and that’s okay.”
Winfrey has previously faced scrutiny for her association with Oz. In 2020, Seth McFarlane criticized the celebrity doctor’s spread of misinformation in the early days of the coronavirus while also taking Winfrey to task for her role in elevating his platform. “Oprah has done some wonderfully altruistic things with her career,” he said. “I hope she will lend her own powerful voice to correct it.”
