(WHTM) - Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz is blaming Democrats for the high cost of groceries, but a recent video may have cost him even more.
The viral video of Oz showing himself at what he called a "Wegners" grocery store buying vegetables for a Crudité has taken social media by storm. Democrats believe calling it a Crudité and not a veggie tray means Oz is not "one of us."
"Pennsylvanians don't like when people come in from another state and pretends to be just like them it's kind of ridiculous," says Democrat strategist Danielle Gross.
While Oz is crisscrossing the commonwealth campaigning, Fetterman has been recovering from a stroke suffered days before the May primary election that he won in a landslide. Fetterman has only held a couple of public events, most recently his first public rally in Erie last week.
"I think we have more important things to talk about than, Dennis, than a veggie tray," said Republican strategist Christopher Nicholas. "Like whether (Democrat nominee) John Fetterman is physically and mentally up to debating his opponent in public, which I think is what more voters care about."
"I think the first question everyone should be asking is "Where is John Fetterman?'," said Oz. "Why is he not out campaigning and why isn't he allowing a debate to get scheduled with him and Dr. Oz?
The better question may be, why would Fetterman do a debate? Recent polls have shown the Lieutenant Governor leading by double digits, including a Public Opinion Strategies poll showing Fetterman up 18 points and more than 50% support.
"Fetterman is not as polished as Oz," acknowledged Gross. "I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing."
Oz has agreed to attend an exclusive prime-time debate hosted by Nexstar Media Inc. on October 5 at 8 p.m. Fetterman has not indicated if he will participate. A location will be announced in the coming weeks.
"If Fetterman has time to tweet incessantly about veggie trays perhaps he has time to do one tweet about whether he'll come out of hiding and debate publicly," said Nicholas.
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Even U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) weighed in on the Crudité, saying "I think there are a lot of Pennsylvanians more worried about insulin than that word, which I think you pronounced correctly, Crudité" Still not sure what it is but I'll figure it out."
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