The Trump campaign is speaking out after former campaign manager Brad Parscale was hospitalized Sunday after he threatened to harm himself. Parscale had been behind the Trump campaign’s digital strategy ahead of the president’s 2016 win, though he was demoted from the campaign manager’s post in July.
In a statement, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh called Parscale “a member of our family” and said that “we all love him” and are “ready to support him and his family in any way possible,” according to The Hill. Murtaugh went on to blame Democrats and “disgruntled RINOs” for the weekend incident, citing “disgusting, personal attacks” that “have gone too far.” He said that “they should be ashamed of themselves for what they’ve done to this man and his family.”
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Fort Lauderdale Police confirmed Sunday that Parscale was detained and transported to Broward Health Medical Center under the Baker Act, otherwise known as the Florida Mental Health Act of 1971, which allows emergency mental health services and temporary detainment for those “who are impaired because of their mental illness.” According to Fort Lauderdale Police Department Sgt. DeAnna Greenlaw, and as reported by CNN, officers responded to Parscale’s residence in the affluent Seven Isles community “in reference to an armed male attempting suicide.” Greenlaw said that upon arrival, officers “made contact with the armed subject’s wife, who advised her husband was armed and had access to multiple firearms inside the residence and was threatening to harm himself.”
It was determined that Parscale was the only person inside the home and officers were able to make contact with him. They “developed a rapport, and safely negotiated for him to exit the home.” Once Parscale exited the home, he was “detained without injury” and transported to the hospital. Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Karen Dietrich told the outlet that Parscale “came out and we got him some help.”
Politico reports that the Baker Act allows someone deemed a threat to themselves or others to be detained for 72 hours for psychiatric evaluation. Under the state’s Red Flag Law, officials could ask a judge to bar Parscale from possessing any weapons for up to a year.
Parscale began working with the Trump Organization in 2011 and was hired to build Trump’s campaign website in 2015. He had been named the campaign’s digital media director in 2016, and in 2018, the president named him his re-election campaign manager. In July, however, he was demoted from the position after Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He remains in a role overseeing the Trump campaign’s digital strategy and serves as an adviser.
If you or someone you know are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741-741.
