A US congressman who previously served as White House doctor under Donald Trump was apparently handcuffed and placed on the ground by police officers at a rodeo in his home state of Texas as he attempted to provide medical assistance to a teenager.
The Texas Tribune reported the incident, which was confirmed by Rep Ronny Jackson’s office. It took place over the weekend at a rodeo in White Deer, Texas, in a district that neighbours Mr Jackson’s own.
“While assessing the patient in a very loud and chaotic environment, confusion developed with law enforcement on the scene and Dr Jackson was briefly detained and was actually prevented from further assisting the patient,” a spokesperson for his office told news outlets.
According to a relative of the 15-year-old girl who was apparently experiencing a seizure at the time, Mr Jackson was slammed to the ground by police officers who responded too aggressively to a confusing scene.
“We were just waiting for EMS to get there. The police came up, the deputies, highway patrol, and everyone was just screaming, ‘Get back, get back, get back,’” Linda Dianne Shouse told CNN.
“[Jackson] was trying to tell them that he was a doctor and probably trying to tell him who he was, to be honest. And they were screaming that they did not effing care who he was,” she continued. “And the next thing I knew, they had him on the ground, grabbed him by the shirt, threw him on the ground, face first into the concrete and had him in cuffs.”
According to Ms Shouse, the deputies later apologised for their conduct upon realising that Mr Jackson was both a trained medical professional — and a member of Congress.
The Texas Tribune further noted that Mr Jackson’s office asserted that the congressman had been seated in the stands and had not imbibed any alcoholic beverages before attempting to assist the girl. It was a notable claim given that Mr Jackson has, in the past, been accused of drinking and taking Ambien while on the job serving as White House physician. He has denied the various allegations, but they nonetheless derailed his nomination to the Department of Veterans Affairs under Mr Trump.
Mr Jackson has stoked controversy throughout his time in Congress with his comments about Joe Biden and other Democrats; in one instance, he referred to Mr Biden as “a cancer” during a TV interview, and he also floated nonsense conspiracies in 2022 about the Omicron Covid variant supposedly being a ginned-up fear tactic by Democrats to justify election fraud.
