New York — A new front in The battle Between the Governor of California Gavin Newsom The Trump administration opened a video clip featuring the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Dr. Mehmet Oz Visits Los Angeles and claims members of the Armenian community orchestrated widespread health care fraud.
The days-long public fray escalated on social media Thursday evening, when Newsom announced that his office would file a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services accusing Oz of discrimination.
Newsom’s office argued in the complaint that Oz “made baseless and racially charged allegations” threatening intimidating participation in hospice and home care programs among the targeted community. The governor’s office noted that the allegations “have already caused real harm” by hurting business at an Armenian bakery shown in the video.
Oz and CMS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaint or the content of the video, nor have they publicly shared details confirming the alleged fraud.
A video posted on social media earlier this week shows a CMS director visiting the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles and pointing to a four-block radius that he says is home to 42 nursing homes, suggesting possible fraud. He points to a company he says was part of a $16 million fraud scheme.
Then, while standing in front of a building housing an Armenian bakery, he claimed that nearly $3.5 billion in elder care and home care fraud occurred in Los Angeles and that “a fair portion of that amount” was run by the “Armenian-Russian Mafia.”
Oz describes the Armenian script on business signs as the camera pans toward the bakery.
“I noticed that the letters and the language I use belong to that dialect,” says Oz, whose parents immigrated from Türkiye to the United States. He also claims that “there hasn’t been a lot of attention to these issues” in California.
Türkiye and Armenia have long suffered from tension over historical grievances and Türkiye’s alliance with Azerbaijan. There are no official diplomatic relations between the two neighboring countries, and their common borders have remained closed since the 1990s, despite their agreement late last year to simplify visa procedures in the two countries. An attempt to normalize relations.
Newsom disputed the claims in Oz’s video and noted on social media that California has revoked more than 280 nursing home licenses and banned new ones starting in 2022 over concerns about fraud. The two leaders then exchanged several sharp attacks back and forth on social media.
The dispute is among many that have arisen between Newsom, who is seen as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential nominee, and the Republican administration of President Donald Trump. Newsom and Trump disagreed on issues ranging from the National Guard to federal administration Deployment in Los Angeles For the President’s efforts to block California 2035 Ban new gas-powered carsfirst in the country.
The Oz video also points to larger efforts by the Trump administration to highlight fraud across the country. The efforts come after allegations of fraud involving day care centers run by Somali residents in Minneapolis sparked a widespread anti-immigration crackdown in the Midwestern city, leading to widespread protests. Two people were shot and killed in the city by federal agents this month.