SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (KABC) — A Santa Clarita dentist is defending herself after a resurfaced video of her joking that she doesn’t give her best care to patients who do not support President Donald Trump went viral.
Dr. Harleen Grewal is speaking out in her own defense.
The viral video that resurfaced on TikTok shows the dentist joking that she gives “different care” to patients who aren’t Trump supporters.
“So I have a secret hat I wear sometimes, it says ‘make your smile great again.’ So I wear that when I work on my patients, so when they look horrified or complain, I quietly cut back on the laughing gas,” Grewal said in the video.
The video is not new. It was first posted two years ago by her own office — intended as a joke to show her personality.
The video was deleted, but it recently started circulating again on social media.
On Thursday, Grewal allowed cameras into her dental practice and agreed to an interview, saying the controversy was driven by someone trying to “cancel” her.
She says that a few months ago, she was investigated and cleared by the California Dental Board.
“They asked me if I had said that, and I said, ‘Yes, I said it in one of my roasting speeches at a women’s Republican group.’ Just like the Democrats, they make jokes, too. We make jokes as well. Why can’t we just take a joke light-heartedly?” Grewal said. “But that was taken to cancel me, and the dental board did an investigation. They cleared it out and said there was nothing they could find that proved any of that.”
“I hate seeing politics come into a business like this. I don’t think it has a place there, and it really bothers me that that video was made, that that was said,” said Santa Clarita resident Valerie Bradford.
Some patients emailed Eyewitness News, saying they are changing dentists after seeing the video.
Grewal sums up the controversy as a “smear campaign” and says she feels politically targeted. She says she calls her patients her family.
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