BUCK: We got the big day in the Pennsylvania GOP primary today for the Senate seat that is open there. And as promised, we have Dr. Oz with us now, Mehmet Oz. Dr. Oz, welcome you back and just say we’re calling this closing arguments, sir, because the polls, today’s the day. What is your pitch? We got a big Pennsylvania audience listening, and people all across the country want to know: Why should Oz be the guy for the GOP in Pennsylvania?

DR. OZ: The reason I am leading in the polls is folks know and they’re coalescing behind me, recognizing I have fought for Pennsylvanians, for Americans against powerful insiders my entire career. Most recently obviously also during the covid pandemic I took on mandates and shutdowns. I was the one that called to fire Fauci because he stifled debate, didn’t let us actually talk about what was wrong with these mandates, shutdowns and vaccine force procedures.

The same twisting of science is hurting our children. All these gender arguments now to teach first graders about gender doesn’t make scientific sense. That’s why if you’re brave, you say what you see, acknowledge that biologic men shouldn’t play women’s sports. Here’s the good news. This is why I should be the bold voice. It’s fixable with strong leadership. And I’ve been talking about these issues for years, and in Washington I’ll represent our Pennsylvania values: Pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, pro-energy.

Let’s make this the land of plenty again by reducing mindless regulations and the incompetence, the gross incompetence. Who wants to worry about affording to fill up their tank with gas or how about finding baby formula? So, all that said, the main reason that you should in your minds focus on this is what Trump said about me when he endorsed me was right: I’m smart, tough, and I will never let you down. Smart to understand the issues. We just covered a couple. Tough not to not wither when there is blistering criticism coming at us and I will never let you down. So, when you put your head on the pillow at night you know I’ll be there for you.

CLAY: Dr. Oz, what’s it gonna feel like as a first-time political candidate for those returns to start rolling in, and what do you expect your emotions to be as you watch those come in?

DR. OZ: Look. You want to talk about a tense moment, it’s the operating room when there’s a bleeding vessel behind the heart. So I’m used to pressure, and I’ve played sports my whole life. So I guess it’s gonna probably feel the way I played before I would feel before a game would start. But I’m hoping that once the returns come in, I’ll feel a little bit more like it feels during an actual game when you sort of get into the flow of it, you get into the zone. But when you’ve worked as hard as I’ve worked with my team — and every single hour, every day is pressure making sure voters know what you stand for, you left everything on the field. There hasn’t been a moment or an opportunity we haven’t taken, so no matter how it turns out I feel very fulfilled.

BUCK: Speaking to Dr. Oz. As you know today is the big day in Pennsylvania, folks, go into the polls to pick who the GOP nominee for that Senate seat will be. Dr. Oz, why do you want this? I mean, you’re a very well-known national, international figure, very successful, made plenty of money. Why put yourself in the fight? Why would you choose this?

DR. OZ: I always play the long game. If you look back in your life and you see there were huge opportunities to make a difference to help others, help mankind and you didn’t take it, then shame on you. I’ve been very happy. Listen, the OR is a very safe place, if you’re a doctor, not so much for the patient. The studio is a pretty cool place to be, as you guys know. You get pampered and, you know, you have everything you need, your name is on the awning, that’s all great ego gratification.

But at the end of my life I look back and thought, “Oh, my gosh. We were in crisis, and I could have helped, I really could have made a difference,” well, and you didn’t do it, that would feel terrible, you feel like a coward. And what defines us is being brave, rousing — back to sports. I played college football, and before the game the last word you’d hear before you run out there is brave, home of the brave.

This is a time that calls for Americans, for patriots to be brave, to stand up and identify what we actually represent as a people, and I would argue it’s individualism. It’s not collectivism, which is what we saw during covid, this top-down, one-size-fits-all approach. It’s an authoritarian approach. It doesn’t… It grates on me and doesn’t work. If we can capture back the freedom that’s represented by being an American and that can only come by being brave enough to fight for it then we’ll be a successful people. We need leaders who channel that emotion.

CLAY: When you see these results coming in, obviously your closing argument — you just made it with us — has been focused to a large extent on electability. If you are the nominee, do you believe you are the best candidate to preserve this seat for Republicans, given that Pat Toomey is stepping down? And how much attention should electability, in your mind, focus in on these Pennsylvania Senate Republican primary voters today?

DR. OZ: Without question — we have polling data on this — I’m the most electable. I’ve been in people’s living rooms, their bedrooms every day for years and years. So they know who I am. They don’t have to guess. And they knew who I am as I have been hosting a show, not as I’ve been on fake ads attacking my character and decision-making process ’cause that’s $35 million of negativity dumped on my head by mostly people on Wall Street who were trying to buy the seat.

So that actually confuses people. They don’t actually see who I truly am, unless they remember what those shows were like. So that gets to a moderate, conservative Democrat audience that is important for us to win as Republicans to gain power in Pennsylvania and to hold on to this Republican seat. I also can get to populations within Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, African-American populations in particular, because I respect the challenges that they face and I understand exactly what issues tend to attract them.

And conservative, especially churchgoing individuals respect the need for their kids to hear messages that can elevate them, that can show them the path for empowerment so they have agency over their future. They don’t want to be told they’re victims where they gotta sit back and wait for someone to come help them, ’cause if the government’s the only person that can help you, the government owns you. It controls you. It’s the opposite of what we want to message as leaders in this country. But yet that’s unfortunately what we have told many in the next generation. And we don’t want to generational poverty and homelessness and unemployment. That would lead to a stripping away of the vitality of what our country represents.

BUCK: Dr. Oz, he’s up today, folks, in that Pennsylvania race. Go cast your ballots. Dr. Oz, best of luck to you, sir. Thanks for making time for us on Clay and Buck.

DR. OZ: God bless for having me on. DrOz.com. Check out what I stand for. Please vote. I’d be honored to have yours.