Dr. Sandra Lee — a board-certified dermatologist and star of the Dr. Pimple Popper television series — has responded to The View star Joy Behar‘s joke about her during the talk show’s particularly heated Hot Topics discussion about Donald Trump nominating celebrity surgeon and TV star Dr. Mehmet Oz to run the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
As the ABC program’s panelists reacted Wednesday to Trump nominating Dr. Oz for the cabinet position, Behar jokingly compared the former Dr. Oz Show host to Dr. Lee — and, when Entertainment Weekly reached out to Dr. Lee for a response, and office provided an exclusive email statement on her behalf.
“Thank you for the shout-out, Joy! We love The View! As a board-certified dermatologist in practice for over 2 decades, I think I could probably lend a valuable voice to any discussion about our healthcare system,” the statement reads. “In the meantime, I’ll ask our 30 million followers what they think.”
On Wednesday’s episode of The View, Behar led a Hot Topics discussion about Trump nominating Dr. Oz for the position, and invoked Dr. Pimple Popper in a joke about Oz’s qualifications.
ABC; Paul Archuleta/Getty
“Dr. Oz is a very well-known heart surgeon. This is an administrative position, but because he’s on television, Trump picks people who are on TV,” Behar said on the air of Dr. Oz, who got his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed training as a cardiothoracic surgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital, per ABC News. “They might as well pick Dr. Pimple Popper. I mean, the guy is qualified to do heart surgery, not necessarily run Medicare.”
Outside of stardom at the center of her own docuseries, Dr. Pimple Popper, which documents her various in-office skin procedures, Dr. Lee is a member of the American Academy of Dermatology, the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, and the American Society for MOHS Surgery, according to her practice’s website. She also completed her undergraduate degree at UCLA, attended medical school at the Hahnemann University School of Medicine, and completed her dermatology residency at Southern Illinois University.
EW has reached out to a representative for Behar at The View for comment on Dr. Lee’s statement.
Dr. Oz is among the latest of Trump’s controversial choices to potentially join his administration — many of whom The View ladies have criticized in recent weeks, particularly nominees like Matt Gaetz for Attorney General, Fox News personality Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to become the leader of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“There may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again,” Trump said in a statement announcing Oz’s nomination. “Dr. Oz will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.”
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Prior to his political ambitions (which included a failed bid to become a Pennsylvania senator in 2022), Oprah Winfrey helped launch Dr. Oz to stardom as a regular health expert on her talk show. He later transitioned to his own talk show that aired for 13 seasons before ending ahead of his 2022 campaign.
He eventually endured intense criticism during the COVID-19 pandemic for pressuring “government officials to make hydroxychloroquine widely available, despite unresolved questions about its safety and effectiveness,” per the Associated Press.
The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on ABC.