Brad Parscale, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, has stepped down from the president’s re-election campaign and his digital firm to focus on getting “help,” he said Wednesday.
Parscale, 44, who authorities said was taken to a hospital Sunday after his wife reported that he was armed and threatening to harm himself, said in a statement that “I am stepping away from my company and any role in the campaign for the immediate future to focus on my family and get help dealing with the overwhelming stress.”
His wife, Candice, called police Sunday afternoon, saying she and her husband, a prominent Republican political operative, had had “a verbal altercation” at their home on DeSota Drive in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, according to police.
Police said Parscale had multiple guns when they arrived at his home. His wife said that she feared that he was suicidal and that she saw him load a gun before hearing “a loud bang” as she fled, police documents revealed Monday.
Parscale was tackled to the ground by SWAT officers when he didn’t obey commands, and he was taken into custody under state guidelines allowing for an involuntary mental illness commitment, police reports showed.
Candice Parscale issued a new statement Wednesday saying her statements about what happened earlier this week had been misrepresented.
“The statements I made on Sunday have been misconstrued, let it be clear my husband was not violent towards me that day or any day prior,” she said.
Parscale’s departure from the campaign was first reported by Politico.
Parscale had been running Trump’s re-election campaign before he was demoted in July and replaced by his deputy, Bill Stepien, also a veteran Republican operative. Weeks earlier, the Trump campaign was embarrassed by a lower-than-expected crowd at a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which had been billed as the president’s major kickoff event.
In a joint statement, the couple thanked everyone for their “support during this difficult time for our family.”