Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), a former White House physician to Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, threatened and cursed at a Texas state trooper after an altercation at an Amarillo-area rodeo on July 29, according to body-camera and dashcam footage released Monday. Jackson had been trying to assist a teenage girl experiencing seizures, and police briefly slammed him to the ground after he refused to step away to let an EMS crew in.
“You are a f—ing full-on dick!” Jackson told the unidentified trooper after he was brought off the ground, according to the 31 minutes of footage released Monday under an open records request by The Texas Tribune. “You better recalculate, motherf—er!” He also told the trooper he was “gonna call the governor tomorrow and I’m gonna talk to him about this s–t because this is f—in’ ridiculous,” and before getting in a car, he could be heard saying, “You f—ed up, motherf—er.”
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Jackson repeated the threat to Carson County Sheriff Tam Terry soon after the incident, according to an Aug. 11 report from the sheriff. Jackson repeatedly told Terry there needed to be consequences for the deputies who had handcuffed him, the sheriff wrote, and when he told the congressman he didn’t need to be threatened, Jackson said “he would pull hell and high water and come and ‘bury me in the next election.'”
“Congressman Jackson, as a trained ER physician, will not apologize for sparing no effort to help in a medical emergency, especially when the circumstances were chaotic and the local authorities refused to help the situation,” Kate Lair, a spokeswoman for Jackson, said Monday. Jackson’s “office has emphasized he was ‘not drinking,’ though the sheriff’s report challenges that assertion,” The Texas Tribune reported.
Witnesses referred to the press by Jackson’s office said the troopers appeared to have overreacted and had not clearly told Jackson to step away from the girl.
Jackson, the White House physician from 2006 to 2018, was first elected to Texas’ deep-red 13th Congressional District in 2020, after he was endorsed by Trump. He left the White House amid allegations he had been drunk on the job, improperly dispensed medication, and created a hostile work environment. Some of those allegations, which Jackson denied, were affirmed by a Defense Department inspector general’s report that also found he had made “sexual and denigrating” comments about a female subordinate.
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