Armed ex-Trump aide barricades himself in house after being sidelined by president
Donald Trump’s former campaign manager barricaded himself in his Florida home with a gun in a suspected suicide attempt.
Brad Parscale was hospitalized Sunday after police confirmed that they responded to a call by his wife Candice at their home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
His wife told police that he was threatening to harm himself and ‘had access to multiple firearms inside the residence,’ according to a police statement.
Officers were responding ‘in reference to an armed male attempting suicide,’ according to a police official.
‘Officers made contact with the male, developed a rapport, and safely negotiated for him to exit the home,’ police said in a statement.
Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Karen Dietrich told CNN that the SWAT team responded before Parscale finally surrendered to police.
‘He came out and we got him some help,’ Dietrich said.
Tim Murtagh, a Trump campaign spokesman said in a statement they will be ready to support him, but did not directly address the incident.
‘Brad Parscale is a member of our family and we all love him,’ Murtagh said. ‘We are ready to support him and his family in any way possible.’
Parscale was pushed out of his campaign manager position in July amid polls showing Trump lagging badly behind rival Joe Biden ahead of the November 3 presidential election. Those polls have since tightened.
He also allegedly took the blame for a disastrous Tulsa, Oklahoma rally in June that drew another underwhelming crowd for Trump, and which was accused of triggering a coronavirus outbreak after many attendees went unmasked.
Parscale, who continues to work for Trump after being demoted, was accused of spending ‘like a drunken sailor’ after the president’s re-election campaign burned through $800million in 18 months. He has denied wrongdoing, and insists that spending helped build an extremely successful online campaign.
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