Newsom pushes back

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat and frequent antagonist of the Trump administration, responded with unusual speed and force.

Within days of the video’s release, Mr. Newsom announced that his office had filed a civil‑rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, accusing Dr. Oz of discrimination against Armenian‑Americans. The complaint argues that he “spewed baseless and racially charged allegations” that could deter people in the targeted community from seeking hospice or home‑care services, and that the publicity had “already caused real‑world harm” by depressing business at the bakery featured in the video.[^1][^3][^6]

“Our office is reviewing reports that Dr. Mehmet Oz targeted the Armenian American community in Southern California recently — making racially charged claims of fraud outside Armenian‑owned businesses, including a popular bakery,” Mr. Newsom’s press office wrote on X. “Any and all acts of hate have no place in California.”[^3][^8]

Newsom aides point out that California itself has been investigating hospice‑related fraud for years. Following a 2020 Los Angeles Times exposé on abuses in the industry, the state revoked more than 280 hospice licenses and imposed a moratorium on new licenses beginning in 2022, while the Department of Justice brought 109 criminal cases and 24 civil suits involving hospice fraud.[^2] From Sacramento’s perspective, Dr. Oz is taking credit for an enforcement effort the state launched first — and, in the process, unfairly smearing an ethnic community.

Armenian groups see profiling

Armenian‑American organizations have reacted with anger and alarm. The Armenian National Committee of America and the Armenian Bar Association argue that Dr. Oz’s emphasis on Armenian script and his reference to a “Russian Armenian mafia” amount to ethnic profiling that revives “easy stereotypes” and ignores the difference between documented criminal organizations and ordinary families.[^2][^6]

“This isn’t the first time he’s picked on the Armenians,” Garen Jinbachian of the Armenian National Congress in Southern California told ABC7, citing Dr. Oz’s “close ties” to the Turkish government.[^8] In community statements, activists have linked the controversy to the unresolved trauma of the Armenian genocide and longstanding tensions between Armenia and Turkey.

Movses Bislamyan, owner of Sherman Way Marketplace, told ABC7 that he woke up to find his storefront appearing on national news as a symbol of organized crime. “Recording my signs, my location, and talking about some kind of fraud going on here — we have nothing to do with it,” he said. “There is no Armenian mafia going on here. We’re just hard‑working businessmen.”[^3][^8] He estimates that customer traffic fell by around 30 percent in a single day after the video began circulating.[^3][^8]

CMS stands by its fraud focus

Dr. Oz and CMS have not publicly released the full evidentiary record behind his $3.5‑billion estimate or the specific list of “42 hospices” he says operate within a four‑block radius in Van Nuys.[^2][^4] However, federal and state data do show an abnormal concentration of hospice licenses in parts of Los Angeles County, including a corridor along Victory Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley.[^2]

The administration has framed the Los Angeles trip as part of a broader anti‑fraud campaign targeting what it says is widespread misuse of federal funds in Democratic‑led states, including Minnesota and California.[^1][^5] After Mr. Newsom’s complaint was announced, Dr. Oz responded on X that “If there were a real defense for California’s fraud crisis, we’d hear it. CMS and law enforcement will keep doing the actual work: going after fraudsters, period.”[^2][^4]

Supportive conservative outlets argue that Mr. Newsom is more interested in protecting political constituencies than in confronting fraud. Blaze Media, for instance, praised Dr. Oz for “exposing alleged government funding fraud” and accused the governor of opening an investigation into “racially charged” claims instead of the underlying fraud itself.[^2]

Turkish‑American groups warn against “identity vetoes”

The uproar has also drawn in Turkish‑American organizations, who see in Mr. Newsom’s response a different danger: the suggestion that certain communities should be insulated from law‑enforcement scrutiny because of their ethnicity or political influence.

The Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) — in a statement you provided that has also been circulated publicly — said it was “deeply concerning” that the governor had characterized CMS’s enforcement work as “racially charged.” The group stressed that investigations into large‑scale healthcare fraud “are matters of fiscal responsibility and legal accountability, not ethnic identity,” and that criminal conduct by specific individuals “must never be conflated with an entire community.”

ATAA warned that attempts to cast anti‑fraud enforcement as an attack on Armenians risk “inappropriately invoking such allegations to cast aspersions on the Turkish‑American community or its public servants,” and could undermine public trust in federal oversight. The statement calls on officials to reject “narratives that invert reality by portraying those combating fraud as villains, while allowing those responsible for misusing public resources to shield themselves behind claims of discrimination.”

Turkish‑American advocates emphasize that Medicare and Medicaid fraud is fundamentally about taxpayer money — “my money, your money,” as one activist put it — and about harm to vulnerable patients, many of whom are elderly, disabled or low‑income. They argue that fair enforcement must follow the evidence wherever it leads, whether against Armenian, Turkish, Russian, or any other individuals, and that identity politics should not become a veto power over federal investigations.

A broader test of enforcement and identity

The standoff between Dr. Oz and Governor Newsom may ultimately be resolved in the relatively quiet fora of federal civil‑rights offices and oversight hearings. But it highlights a larger dilemma for an increasingly diverse United States: how to speak honestly about the demographics of certain criminal networks without criminalizing entire communities — and how to ensure that legitimate enforcement is not chilled by accusations of bias, nor that prejudice is excused as mere “data‑driven” policing.

Los Angeles County’s hospice sector clearly has a fraud problem, as both state data and federal investigations attest.[^2] Armenian‑Americans clearly have reason to resent being painted as a monolithic “mafia” and to fear that rhetoric from high‑ranking officials could fuel harassment or economic retaliation.[^2][^3][^8] And federal officials, whether Turkish‑American or otherwise, clearly have a duty to safeguard programs like Medicare and Medicaid for the patients who depend on them.

For Turkish‑American readers of TCUSAPAC, one question now looms largest: Can the United States confront complex, often transnational fraud schemes without allowing any lobby, ethnic or otherwise, to place entire lines of inquiry off‑limits?

How HHS handles California’s complaint — and how both sides choose their words in the months ahead — will help determine the answer.