Republicans are blaming a “liberal bias” in the media for the lack of attention given to the harassment allegations made against former Surgeon General Richard Carmona, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Arizona.
“This is what we are up against,” National Republican Senatorial Committee executive director Rob Jesmer wrote in a fundraising email to supporters on Tuesday. “The double standards, the liberal bias.”
Politico reported on Monday that Carmona’s former boss, Cristina Beato, complained to House investigators in 2007 that “an angry Carmona,” while surgeon general, “twice banged on her door and yelled at her in the middle of the night after workplace disputes.”
Yet Carmona’s campaign manager Alexis Tameron told Politico that “Beato’s claims are complete lies and not worth dignifying with a response.”
The NRSC is still trying to keep the story alive.
“That’s right: Richard Carmona pounded on his female supervisor’s door at midnight, on two separate occasions, yelling and screaming at her to the point she felt scared for her family,” Jesmer said.
“And the Left’s reaction? They are smearing the victim, calling her nasty names and saying she is a liar. And where is the press?” he added.
Several former colleagues of Carmona and Beato reached by The Daily Caller said it was no secret that Carmona and Beato did not get along.
Jesmer, in the fundraising pitch, asked donors to imagine the scenario if Carmona was a Republican and these allegations were leveled against him: “Think of the outrage on the left. The liberal blogs on fire, Democratic talking heads on MSNBC lighting into the Republicans, and liberal women’s rights groups marching on Republican campaign headquarters. Can’t you see it now?”
