A group of Senate Democrats is demanding that Dr. Mehmet Oz reveal whether his agency coordinated with far-right activists pushing a baseless conspiracy theory that left-wing groups are stealing the votes of nursing home residents.
Eight senators, including Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Alex Padilla, Ron Wyden and Cory Booker, wrote to Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, asking him to “urgently” rescind a July memo and restore the agency’s 2020 and 2024 guidance on helping nursing home residents vote, reported WIRED.
“This is as low as it gets,” Warren told WIRED. “The Trump administration’s unfounded allegations of election fraud are inspiring election denial groups to harass nursing home residents and staff.”
The July memo scrapped earlier guidance explaining how nursing home staff could help residents vote, such as assisting with mail ballots or arranging transportation to the polls. In its place, CMS warned of prosecution for staff who “engage in inappropriate coercion or other violations of residents’ rights.”
Last month, election denial groups seized on the memo to claim voter fraud was happening inside care facilities. The effort was led by the Election Integrity Network, headed by former Trump adviser Cleta Mitchell.
“These left-wing groups go into the nursing homes, and they go into the group homes, and they basically steal the votes of these most vulnerable,” Mitchell said on Steve Bannon’s “War Room.”
The senators want Oz to disclose any communications between CMS and Mitchell, her group and Project Civica, a New York-based election denial organization, including “the dates and nature of those communications, and any recommendations provided to CMS.”
They also pressed Oz on an apparent contradiction. In a September letter to Warren, Oz wrote that helping a resident request a mail ballot, complete it according to the resident’s wishes or get to a polling place “is not the type of conduct that would give rise to a voter fraud investigation.”
“Why has CMS not reinstated its previous guidance clarifying nursing homes’ responsibilities to facilitate residents’ voting rights?” the senators asked.
A CMS spokesperson did not answer questions about the agency’s communications with election denial groups and instead referred WIRED to the July memo. Mitchell, the Election Integrity Network and Project Civica did not respond to requests for comment.
The demand comes as Trump said Tuesday he would accept the midterm results if they are “honest elections,” even as his administration has spent months promoting unfounded claims about mail-in and noncitizen voting.