Congressman Ronny Jackson, who represents Texas' vast 13th Congressional District, allegedly threatened to beat a law enforcement officer and to bury a local sheriff in the next election prior to being arrested last month, according to a report by the Carson County Sheriff.
Jackson was briefly detained by law enforcement on July 29 as he was attending the White Deer Rodeo. The congressman, who also formerly served as the White House physician for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, previously said the incident occurred as he was "summoned by someone in the crowd to assist a 15-year-old girl who was having a medical emergency nearby."
The incident report from Carson County Sheriff Tam Terry was first released on Friday to The Texas Tribune in response to a freedom of information request. "I'm going to beat that motherfuckers' ass!" the report states Jackson said about a DPS state trooper ahead of his detainment, according to the news outlet.
According to the report, Jackson reportedly yelled profanities and was extremely agitated with deputies responding by handcuffing him and bringing him to the ground. The report also alleged that the Texas Republican threatened to bury Sheriff Terry in the next election.
"I physically had to hold Congressman Jackson back from going towards Trooper Young," Chief Deputy Sheriff JC Blackburn said in the report, The Dallas Morning News reported.
After the congressman was detained he reportedly "continued to yell and scream from inside the vehicle about who he was. Congressman Jackson also stated that he was going to call Governor Abbott."
The report starkly contrasts Jackson’s version of the July 29 incident. In a statement after the event, a spokesperson for Jackson insisted that the lawmaker was detained amid a “very loud and chaotic environment” and was released when authorities realized the doctor was just trying to assist. The statement also stressed that Jackson was merely sitting in the stands during the rodeo “in full view of the assembled crowd.”
“Congressman Jackson was not drinking and was prevented from giving medical care in a potentially life-threatening situation due to overly aggressive and incompetent actions by the local authorities present at the time of the incident,” Jackson spokesperson Kate Lair said on Saturday.
“Again, he was asked to help the teenager when no other uniformed medics were present. 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,” Lair added.
Lair also said that the Jackson is glad that the teenager he was attempting to help "has recovered from the incident and is doing well."
But the report offers a different story. According to The Texas Tribune, the report states that Jackson was drinking backstage at the White Deer rodeo. After the teenager collapsed, the report states that Jackson was among the group that crowded around the teenager, prompting authorities to try to clear the area.
In an interview with CNN, a traveling nurse who was related to the teenage patient said that Jackson was trying to assist in the “loud, chaotic” incident where “everyone was just screaming ‘Get back, get back, get back.” She added that she was pushed back and punched in the chest while authorities were trying to clear the area—and that she saw a law enforcer scream in Jackson’s face to “Get the fuck back.”
The report states that Jackson then allegedly uttered the profanity at the Department of Public Safety Trooper after he asked him to move back.
“He 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,” Linda Dianne Shouse told CNN. “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.”
Jackson was then escorted out of the rodeo grounds, where the handcuffs were removed. The report states that afterward, the congressman allegedly continued to yell, and his wife even demanded the law enforcer’s information.
Later that evening, he allegedly had a call with the sheriff.
“Jackson stated that the deputies used bad judgment, that the situation needed to be investigated, and that there better be consequences,” Sheriff Terry said in the report. “He stated that he was not threatening me, but that in the next election he would pull hell and high water and come and ‘bury me in the next election!’ ”
“He ended the conversation with the statement ‘Game on,’ ” according to Sheriff Terry.
Jackson responded on Facebook to the release of the report.
"The The Dallas Morning News needs to get its facts straight. The most important fact they missed is that Bailey is ok. Thank God.
"I 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.
"I was prevented from giving medical care in a potentially life-threatening situation due to overly aggressive and incompetent actions by the local authorities present at the time of the incident.
"I was not drinking and, again, I was asked to help the teenager when no other uniformed medics were present. I’m a trained ER physician and I was doing what any doctor would’ve done in a similar situation," Jackson wrote.
The congressman first joined the White House Medical Unit as a physician in 2006, where he served under three presidents. Jackson retired from the Navy with the rank of rear admiral in 2019 after more than two decades in the service. He was first elected 13th Congressional District in 2020 and re-elected in 2022, setting up a potential U.S. Senate run in 2026.
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