DALLAS (AP) — Police video launched Monday exhibits U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas being taken to the bottom by officers, profanely berating them and threatening to report them to the governor throughout an altercation at a rodeo final month.
In physique digicam video, the previous White Home doctor may be seen approaching a gaggle of individuals surrounding a 15-year-old woman who authorities have mentioned was having seizures. The 2-term Republican congressman later has what seems to be like an argument with one of many folks attending to {the teenager} earlier than she is placed on a stretcher.
Shortly afterward, Jackson is wrestled to the bottom by a minimum of two officers. The 31-minute video, which has sound in just some parts, exhibits officers turning Jackson facedown and placing him in handcuffs earlier than serving to him to his toes.
“I’m going to name the governor tomorrow and I’m going to speak to him about this (expletive), as a result of that is (expletive) ridiculous,” Jackson can later be heard telling a state trooper, his voice raised.
State police launched the video footage days after Jackson defended his actions in a publish on social media. Kate Lair, a spokesperson for Jackson, reiterated the congressman’s feedback in an announcement Monday wherein she mentioned he was prevented from offering medical care to {the teenager} on account of “overly aggressive and incompetent actions” by officers.
“Congressman Jackson, as a educated ER doctor, won’t apologize for sparing no effort to assist in a medical emergency, particularly when the circumstances had been chaotic and the native authorities refused to assist the state of affairs,” Lair mentioned. Chris and Jodi Jordan mentioned they had been on the rodeo in White Deer, a small city exterior the Panhandle metropolis of Amarillo, and witnessed a few of what occurred. They mentioned Jackson was making an attempt to assist the woman earlier than medics arrived and that the deputies had been needlessly tough in pulling him away.
“We had been simply appalled,” mentioned Chris Jordan, 48, of Hereford. “The slamming to the bottom I didn’t perceive in any way.”
The Jordans mentioned that after the incident they mentioned speaking to information reporters about what that they had seen with an aide to Jackson. The congressman’s workplace referred The Related Press to the couple.
Shortly after the encounter, Carson County Sheriff Tam Terry talked with Jackson by cellphone. Based on the sheriff’s written report, Jackson repeatedly informed Terry that there wanted to be penalties for the deputies who had handcuffed him. After Terry responded that he didn’t should be threatened, Jackson mentioned that “he would pull hell and excessive water and are available and ‘bury me within the subsequent election,’ ” the sheriff wrote.
Jackson was elected in 2020 after gaining notoriety for his over-the-top pronouncements about then-President Donald Trump’s well being whereas serving as a high White Home doctor. A 12 months later, the Division of Protection inspector basic launched a scathing report about Jackson’s conduct whereas on the job on the White Home.
The report concluded that Jackson made “sexual and denigrating” feedback a few feminine subordinate, violated the coverage on consuming alcohol on a presidential journey and took prescription-strength sleeping medicine that prompted worries from his colleagues about his capability to offer correct medical care.
Jackson denied the allegations and mentioned on the time that the report was a “political hit job.”
___ Weber reported from Austin, Texas.