New Jersey Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli plans to sue his Democratic opponent, Mikie Sherrill, for claiming he “killed tens of thousands of people” profiting from the opioid epidemic.
Ciattarelli’s campaign announced that it plans to file a defamation lawsuit next week against Sherrill for her comments made during Wednesday night’s fiery final debate before Election Day, in which she accused the Republican of making millions publishing opioid propaganda at his former medical publishing company.
Sherrill “claimed – twice – that Jack Ciattarelli ‘killed tens of thousands of people, including children’, a clearly defamatory attack that shocked the moderators, press, and public alike,” Ciattarelli campaign strategist Chris Russell told NJ.com in a statement.
“In a time where political violence and violent rhetoric are becoming all too prevalent, Mikie Sherrill baselessly and recklessly accusing a political opponent of mass murder in a televised debate crosses the line,” he added.
During the tensest moment of the debate, Sherrill claimed that Ciattarelli made millions “by working with some of the worst offenders and saying that opioids were safe, putting out propaganda, publishing their propaganda while tens of thousands of New Jerseyans died.”
At another point in the debate, Sherrill accused Ciattarelli of “trying to divert from the fact you killed tens of thousands of people by printing your misinformation, your propaganda.”
Sherrill was referring to controversy that emerged during Ciattarelli’s 2021 governor’s campaign about training materials his company published, which critics said included pharma industry talking points about opiates that were dangerously inaccurate.
