Dr. Oz Follows Up Dog-Killing Report With Speech in Same Room as Hitler’s Car

When a report emerged earlier this week that Dr. Mehmet Oz was responsible for the deaths of more than 300 dogs and an “entire litter of puppies” (a spokesperson for his campaign denied the report and insisted that “Doctor Oz never abused any animals”), it didn’t seem like things could get much worse for the US Senate candidate, for whom the campaign trail has been one WTF moment after another. Somehow, though, they have, and if you’re wondering where there is to go after alleged puppy killing, we have three words for you: Adolf Hitler memorabilia.

No, Oz was not caught with a cabinet full of Nazi china à la the father in American Beauty, but he did make the inexplicable decision—or someone on his staff did for him—to deliver a speech in the same room as Hitler’s car, a vehicle that unsurprisingly bears a swastika.

According to Jezebel, this all occurred Thursday at the Lyon Air Museum, where Congressman Matt Gaetz’s in-laws were hosting a $5,000-per-plate fundraiser. As the site notes, the museum describes the 1939 Mercedes-Benz Model G4 Offener touring wagon thusly: “This particular G4, 440875, was originally delivered to [Adolf] Hitler in late 1939 and was used by the Führer in Obersalzberg, Berlin, and Poland until seized by the French army at Berchtesgaden.” The event was also attended by National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Rick Scott.

The swastika is not visible in the widely circulated photo of Oz speaking near the vehicle.

So why did Oz do this? Jezebel writer Susan Rinkunas has some ideas:

We have several theories about how and why this happened. One, Oz’s team is extremely bad at their jobs. Two, they hate their boss. Three, this was an intentional wink to the fascist elements of the Republican Party.

The chair of the event, Palmer Luckey, is Gaetz’s brother-in-law and the billionaire founder of Oculus VR. Luckey is a Donald Trump supporter, and in 2017 he was photographed with Steve Bannon and [Holocaust denier] Chuck C. Johnson, with both Johnson and Luckey flashing a white-power gesture. Luckey claimed on Twitter that the gesture being a hate symbol was “fake news” and that people do it to “playfully mimic Trump.”

And Rinkunas is not the only one who thinks Oz’s appearance near Hitler’s ride might not have been a simple mistake.