Sethi’s remarks were criticized by Democratic Senate candidate James Mackler, arguing that it’s “clear (Sethi) doesn’t belong in the U.S. Senate.” “Real leaders don’t put their own political gain ahead of public health and safety, and our response to the COVID crisis shouldn’t be about politics,” Mackler, a Nashville attorney and former Army helicopter pilot.
Doctor Manny Sethi’s prescription for Tennessee to ‘Fire Fauci’ and endorse hydroxychloroquine make it clear he doesn’t belong in the U.S. Senate. Real leaders don’t put their own political gain ahead of public health and safety, and our response to the COVID crisis shouldn’t be about politics. I closed my law practice to serve in the U.S. Army after 9/11, and I’m asking Tennesseans to let me serve again in this new crisis because senators have a mission too – to serve all of America.”
Mackler made rural health care a focal point of his campaign. He announced his run in front of a shuttered rural hospital in McKenzie, Tennessee, at the beginning of 2019, a few months after the hospital suddenly closed. And over the last few months, the rural hospital closures, the opioid crisis and the rising rates of Covid-19 have created “a perfect storm” that hit Tennessee.
With less than a week to go in the primaries for Tennessee’s open U.S. Senate seat, the campaign of decorated Iraq war combat veteran James Mackler, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, points out a number of unanswered contrasts still remain in what Politico this week called “the nastiest Republican primary in the country.”
“The election is going to be a clear choice between me – an Iraq war vet who stepped forward to serve again in a time of crisis – and someone who has pledged to never disagree with the president,” Mackler told The Daily Memphian.
“Leaders put the health and safety of those they serve ahead of their own personal political gain,” said James, who closed his law practice after 9/11 and volunteered for the U.S. Army, serving as a Screaming Eagle in the 101st Airborne Division. “Yesterday, I cast my ballot safely at home as all voters are eligible to do in the August election and I’m asking all Tennesseans to let me serve again in a new crisis. There’s a perfect storm for change gathering across Tennessee and over the next 99 days, voters will have a choice between a combat veteran who stepped up to serve after 9/11 and is asking to serve again, or a rubber stamp for the very people that have made Tennessee the leader in rural hospital closures per person, ignored the opioid epidemic, conducted a trade war that hurt our economy more than any other state, and have mishandled the pandemic response with deadly consequences.”
