Ah, the good Dr. Phil McGraw. Whether he likes it or not, a pretend doctor who spent decades on TV yelling at teens until they attend one of his rehab prisons is a pretty Trumpian profession. Having not renewed his medical license since 2006, he makes the cliché true: he’s not a doctor, but he plays one on TV. In many ways, his performance as a TV therapist isn’t so different from Trump’s role on The Apprentice, which is probably why no one found it odd that he spoke at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on October 27.
However, McGraw now says he only spoke at Trump’s rally as an “act of rebellion” against Kamala Harris’ campaign because Harris didn’t return his phone calls. In what can be described as quite the corn-cobbing, Phil says that he “requested 25-plus times to speak to Kamala Harris” and never received an answer. Rather than taking the hint that she’s just not that into you, bro, he did the Trump rally, gave the impression that he endorsed Trump by performing at the former president’s wildly racist event, and went on Piers Morgan to complain about it.
Nevertheless, he maintains that he didn’t do the rally “to endorse Donald Trump” because he doesn’t “like celebrity endorsements.” It’s a strange line of reasoning for a guy begging to appear at campaign events, but he does try to present a balanced approach. He “offered to give the identical speech at a Harris rally,” crossing out Trump’s name and writing in Harris’. That speech would’ve fit in like a glove at a Harris rally because McGraw tackled many hallmarks of the Harris-Walz platform, such as cancel culture and why Donald Trump isn’t a bully. As stirring as a speech about why Kamala Harris isn’t a bully would’ve been, it was not meant to be. McGraw says that after Trump’s rally, Harris’ team reached out again only to ghost the poor guy.
“Tell me when and where to be, and I will bring a transcript of the speech and give it at a Harris rally,” McGraw told Morgan. “Never heard another word once they found out I was serious.”
McGraw is still willing to argue that Harris isn’t a bully but doesn’t “back off what I said one iota, not one word. I would still go to a Harris rally and say the exact same thing.”
In his speech at MSG, the one he supposedly would’ve given at a Harris rally, McGraw did complain about the “imbalance” of celebrity endorsements in the media.
“I would love to say it’s equal on both sides, but I’ll guarantee you when Beyoncé, George Clooney, De Niro, and Lizzo come out and say they’re for Kamala Harris, did you read anything or hear anything in the media criticizing it?” he told the crowd at MSG. “No, but you watch what happens tomorrow morning when people find out I came here to talk to you.”
Yeah, we suppose he’d cross out those celebrity names and replace them with Rob Schneider, Scott Baio, and Lee Greenwood. We’re telling you, it would’ve been the same speech.
[via Variety]
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