{"id":635655,"date":"2026-08-13T20:52:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/635655\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T20:52:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:52:23","slug":"oprah-winfrey-addresses-criticism-over-making-pair-of-maga-personalities-famous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/635655\/","title":{"rendered":"Oprah Winfrey addresses criticism over making pair of MAGA personalities famous"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Oprah Winfrey<\/a> has addressed her part in platforming the careers of pro-Trump doctors Dr. Phil McGraw<\/a> and Dr. Mehmet Oz on her titular talk show.<\/p>\n

Winfrey\u2019s The Oprah Winfrey Show show aired from 1986-2011. She introduced McGraw \u2014 who is no longer a licensed psychologist after letting his license lapse two decades ago \u2014 as a weekly expert and relationship strategist in 1998. Oz, who holds medical and business degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, began appearing on the program as a medical expert in 2004.<\/p>\n

Both TV doctors have since become allies of President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. <\/p>\n

McGraw, AKA Dr. Phil, serves on Trump\u2019s Religious Liberty Commission and promotes MAGA initiatives through his conservative cable network Merit Street Media<\/a> and accompanied ICE agents to a raid in Chicago<\/a> with his TV network in June 2025 for a \u201cfirst-hand look at the target operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oz was appointed to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in 2025<\/a>, and has consistently supported Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s Make America Healthy Again<\/a> agenda.<\/p>\n

\"OprahOprah Winfrey (left) invited TV personalities Dr Phil McGraw (center) and Dr Mehmet Oz (right) on her eponymous daytime talk show in the early aughts (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In a new interview with Emmy Magazine<\/a>, Winfrey admitted that she faces criticism for having platformed the pair because of their current political views, but was defensive about why she chose them to join her show in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody has their own path in life, and it has not one thing to do with me, and I don\u2019t have one thing to do with them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, the reason and intention behind me giving them their breaks was I thought they had valuable information to share that had been meaningful to me,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

Winfrey praised McGraw for supporting her during a 1997 lawsuit<\/a>, where she was sued by a group of Texas cattlemen for defaming the beef industry. She won the case in February 1998.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was so practical, so down to earth, so real,\u201d she said of McGraw. \u201cHe would ride in the car with me every morning on the way to trial, where I\u2019m literally sitting on trial for six weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winfrey said her best friend Gayle King <\/a>introduced her to Oz.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe explained practical things like colon cancer and bowel movements,\u201d Winfrey said. \u201cI thought he had the language for explaining medical things in a way that was helpful to me. I thought it would be helpful to many other people. And that is how they ended up on the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Winfrey and Trump were on friendly terms before he became president<\/a>, she publicly endorsed Kamala Harris during the 2024 election and delivered a speech at the Democratic National Convention.<\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident Donald Trump pictured in 2025 alongside Dr. Phil McGraw, who serves on Trump\u2019s Religious Liberty Commission (Getty Images)\"TrumpTrump works closely with Oz, who serves as Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Both McGraw and Oz\u2019s medical expertise has been scrutinized by health professionals over the years. <\/p>\n

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, McGraw faced backlash for suggesting social distancing was unnecessary and sharing inaccurate statistics about non-contagious causes of death<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact of the matter is we have people dying, 45,000 people a year die from automobile accidents, 480,000 from cigarettes, 360,000 a year from swimming pools, but we don\u2019t shut the country down for that,\u201d McGraw said on Laura Ingraham\u2019s The Ingraham Angle. <\/p>\n

McGraw has previously said he sends a letter to Winfrey each year to express his gratitude for their friendship and how it changed his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cOprah and I met in the late \u201890s when she was on trial, and I was on the trial team, then I started doing the show, and started doing the show a lot,\u201d he said on The Kelly Clarkson Show <\/a>in 2022. \u201cAnd then we launched the [Dr. Phil] show, and it really changed my life a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a great life when I met her, and I\u2019ve got a great life now, but she changed a lot of things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[18,117,3428,789,19,17,790,128,2709],"class_list":["post-635655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-government","tag-horizontal","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-politics","tag-tv","tag-washington"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117090186768750690","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}