PHOENIX, AZ – Earlier this week, both Politico and the Associated Press published exhaustive reports detailing serious past allegations made against Democratic Senate candidate Richard Carmona.
These allegations outlined the abuse of taxpayer dollars, including billing the government for personal travel, while Carmona was Surgeon General— an issue backed up by internal government emails received by the Associated Press, as well as the Carmona campaign’s own acknowledgement that he was forced to personally repay at least $3,500 back to the federal treasury.
But perhaps the most serious allegation that has emerged came from previously-held secret testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by a well-respected and accomplished former female supervisor of Richard Carmona. Politico reported that Dr. Christine Beato testified that she felt physically threatened by Carmona on at least two separate occasions when he showed up outside her home banging on her door in the middle of the night.
Carmona, however, refused to be interviewed by either Politico or the Associated Press for their reports and has yet to directly deny any of these serious allegations.
To that end, Mrs. Sharon Giese, Arizona’s National Committeewoman for the RNC is sending the following letter to Dr. Carmona this afternoon:
Dear Dr. Carmona:
I write in regard to your refusal to comment on the story that appeared in Politico Monday, and the allegations against you that it contains.
This story makes clear that your former supervisor, former Deputy Assistant Secretary and Acting Assistant Secretary of Health Dr. Cristina Beato, in 2007 testified to Congress that on two separate occasions, both in the middle of the night, you came to her house and were “banging on [her] door.”
Dr. Beato testified that she felt threatened by your actions. She testified that your aggressive behavior made her fear for the safety of her two children. Moreover, she testified that this behavior was part of a pattern – one that demonstrated you had clear anger management issues and “serious problems” with women and problems with having a Hispanic female supervisor.
In summary, in her words, working with you was “a living nightmare.” Reading testimony about such behavior, most Arizonans will no doubt agree, is chilling.
Yet, you have chosen to respond to Dr. Beato’s testimony through your political campaign manager, who has attempted to marginalize Dr. Beato’s testimony by calling it a lie and a partisan political attack aimed at undermining your campaign for U.S. Senate.
Dr. Beato, however, did not make her statements to the press, or in the context of a political campaign. She made them long before the current Senate campaign – and long before you had expressed any interest in running for public office. She made them in private, considered, testimony to a congressional committee. And as you may be aware, 18 U.S.C. § 1001 makes making knowingly false statements to Congress a federal crime, punishable by fines and imprisonment.
In short, your campaign manager is accusing Dr. Beato – a highly respected member of the medical profession – of lying to Congress and committing a federal crime. You yourself, however, have not denied Dr. Beato’s allegations. The distinction in those responses is neither subtle nor honorable.
It’s also noteworthy that Dr. Beato is far from the only former co-worker who has expressed serious concern with your temperament. As the Los Angeles Times reports on July 8, 2002, “[a] number of Carmona’s former co-worker and employees, however, describe a man whose instinct is to escalate hostilities rather than resolve them,” and that “court and hospital records show a history of conflicts between Carmona and other doctors.” In fact, the Times quoted another former female colleague Sylvia Campoy, the Pima County Health Care Commission Chairwoman, as recounting, “[w]hat I got from Dr. Carmona was antagonism and threats.”
But setting aside what appears to be a years-long pattern of abusive relationships with former co-workers, if you truly believe Dr. Beato to be lying, you should say so, and address the matter with the United States Department of Justice, which is charged with enforcing federal law. As a candidate for the U.S. Senate, you have a duty to inform law enforcement officials if a crime has been committed.
However if, as it appears by your responses to date, you do not deny Dr. Beato’s testimony that on two occasions you pounded on her door in the middle of the night making her fear for her and her children’s safety, then you should address the matter and explain your actions to the people of Arizona.
Not doing so, and continuing to hide behind your campaign while accusing a highly respected former Hispanic female supervisor of criminally lying, is only one more demonstration of the very pattern of hostile and sexist behavior exhibited by you toward women about which Dr. Beato testified.
Sincerely,
Sharon Giese
Arizona Republican Party/RNC National Committeewoman
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