“I was hurt:” Ex-Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale says stress led to dramatic Fort Lauderdale arrest

Months after his dramatic arrested following a standoff with police at his Fort Lauderdale home, Brad Parscale, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, attributed the incident to personal and political stress, including his abrupt firing by the president in July.

Parscale made the comments to Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum in his first public interview since his arrest, which was captured on video from a Fort Lauderdale officer’s bodycam.

Fort Lauderdale police went to Parscale’s home in late September after his wife called 911 to report that her husband was armed and she was afraid he might harm himself. After a brief standoff, the bodycam video captured an officer tackling Pascale to the ground.

Parscale was arrested under the state’s Baker Act, which allows police and others to have a person involuntarily committed if there’s a risk he will harm himself or others. Officers eventually recovered 10 firearms from inside Parscale’s house, police said.

In the Fox interview, which aired Tuesday night, Parscale attributed the incident to a stressful five years. According to Politico, during the 2016 election season, Parscale and his wife lost their twins, who died possibly while Parscale’s wife was still pregnant.

Then in July of this year Parscale, who had been serving as campaign manager of Trump’s reelection bid, was replaced without warning by Bill Stepien amidst bad polling numbers and poor attendance at rallies.

Parscale said he was “removed” and felt confused and hurt.

“I mean, I was hurt. I mean, that’s an obvious sign now that I was hurt,” he told Fox. “I didn’t get a warning sign really that — no one asked me to change my plan. No one asked me to do anything different. I don’t know exactly why I was removed and why, all of the sudden, we had to challenge the plan.”

Parscale told MacCallum he’s made progress since his public arrest and that his relationship with his wife is stronger than ever.

“I feel like I’m healthy. I’m getting better every day, as the stress — and this is the last piece of it — to have history remember as it was accurate,” Parscale told MacCallum. “And I appreciate getting to tell the American people that, because I love my wife. She loves me. She was the first one there right afterwards, and she will be the last one I ever see.

Parscale also used the interview to give his thoughts on the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.

He blamed the president’s response to the coronavirus for his poor performance in certain key counties. For most of the pandemic, the Trump sought to downplay the seriousness of virus, instead focusing on keeping the economy open, Parscale told MacCallum.

“I think a young family with a young child who, one, were scared to take them back to school, wanted to see an empathetic president and an empathetic Republican Party,” Parscale said. “And I think that, and I said this multiple times, and he chose a different path. And I don’t think anything is wrong with this. I love him. But, like, we had a difference on this.”

Parscale also said he believes Trump still has a chance of overturning the results of the election, which have been certified in every key battleground state but are still being disputed by the president.

“Maybe something comes out in one of these court cases. I don’t underestimate Rudy [Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney],” Parscale said. “Sometimes, I watch him on TV, I’m like, whoa. But, at the same time, like, I mean, the guy’s done some amazing things in his life, and I don’t want to underestimate people. And if he believes it, then he should go do it. I think that’s what this country is about.”

Watch the full interview on Fox News.

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