When congressional investigators interviewed Dr. Carmona, he denied that the events Dr. Beato described had ever happened.
So far, everyone who has come forward with personal knowledge of circumstances at HHS during 2003-2005 agrees that, at best, Dr. Beato and Dr. Carmona did not get along well.
Another character assassination ad was released by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) that runs 1:17 and is titled: "The Carmona Files -- Volume 1: Women in the Workplace" featuring Dr. Beato's allegations and other, older reports that were considered by the Senate before they voted 98-0 to confirm him as Surgeon General.
Near the end of her 2007 interview with congressional staffers, Dr. Beato said that one reason she was scared of Dr. Carmona was that "the guy had already killed somebody" (page 95), which is also one of the items featured on the NRSC website. Then she added that she thought his mother had been an alcoholic. The staffers did not follow up on these details and the interview ended moments later.
In fact, Dr. Carmona, who is a decorated Viet-Nam was vet, had indeed killed someone in 1999, when he was working as a deputy for the Pima County Sheriff's Office in Arizona. Responding to a car accident, he confronted a mentally ill man who was assaulting another person in the car he had just rear-ended. Ordered out of the car, the man shot at Dr. Carmona, grazing his head, and he responded with seven shots that killed the man.
It later turned out the man was suspected of having stabbed his father to death earlier that day.
Three years later, after his nomination to be Surgeon General, one of Dr. Carmona's fellow doctors raised questions about the event, framing it as a moment when Dr. Carmona should have behaved more like a doctor ("first do no harm") and less like a law enforcement officer. Senators did not ask any questions about the incident.
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