Jeff Gunter began his career as a dermatologist in the center of his Republican Senate bid in Nevada, saying he “cared deeply” for its patients and has “treated, healed and saved countless lives,” in his three decades as a practicing physician.
“I guess I just love my patients,” he said in your campaign ad, 10 months before next week’s primary. “I love my job and I feel blessed and happy that they have confidence in me to take care of them.”
Several former patients painted a different portrait of Gunter in more than two dozen scathing reviews in a prominent medical journal. review site, RateMDs. with, in which former President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Iceland was described as “arrogant,” “condescending,” “rude,” and “HORRIBLE,” with some users offering stern warnings to others not to come to his clinics. Many of the negative reviews predate his entry into politics.
Gunter was also named as a defendant in two medical malpractice lawsuits in California in 2006 and 2007, both of which were settled between the parties. The American Medical Association, a professional group that lobbies on behalf of doctors, published an analysis last year finding that about 1 in 3 doctors reported that they had been sued before.
“This guy is the reason there are medical malpractice lawsuits,” a reviewer for RateMDs. withwhere Gunter has a 1.8 star rating, he wrote in January 2015.
“His attitude toward us made me realize that he should not be allowed to come near my body with a sharp instrument, so I left abruptly and immediately filed a complaint with the CA Medical Board,” the reviewer added. “Something needs to be done. He is dangerous and completely unsuited for this type of work.”
Gunter’s campaign declined to respond to the negative criticism, but said in a statement that the medical malpractice allegations in which he was listed as a defendant did not involve patients he personally treated.
“In over 30 years, Dr. Gunter has NEVER had a single claim of medical malpractice when he personally treated a patient,” said a campaign official. “He has a large practice that serves primarily rural areas with active-duty military and veterans.”
Other reviews were more complimentary. Separate pages for Gunter on RateMDs contain only a few reviews between them and rate him as 3.3 It is 5 stars. Gunter’s cumulative average rating on RateMDs, Health Notes It is Vital signs, three major medical review sites, had approximately 3.5 stars, with average ratings ranging between 1.8 and 4.7 stars. RateMDs had the highest number of written reviews (30) of the three sites, while its overall rating was strongest on Vitals, where one of 16 written reviewers wrote in 2018 that they were “surprised by some of the poor reviews.” His practices have also been reviewed on other platforms such as Yelp and Google, where the results were generally more positive than his ratings on RateMDs and Healthgrades, although most did not mention Gunter by name.
In a statement to NBC News, Gunter criticized the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., who leads the committee. He said questions about his medical practice history are part of an effort by the NRSC to dig up information about his background and hurt his chances in the upcoming Republican primary.
“In my 30 years of practicing medicine, I have learned that people are the most important currency. Why? Because personnel is politics,” Gunter said in the statement. “Unfortunately, when President Trump discovers the truth that the NRSC is wasting Republican donors’ money to harass his former ambassador’s children and neighbors for baseless nonsense, Steve Daines will end up in the same category as Michael Cohen, Anthony Scaramucci and Mitch McConnell.”
“The good news is that despite the continued gratuitous treasure hunt and the absurd mission to generate half-baked ‘discoveries’ from decades ago, we will prevail and President Trump will ultimately succeed bigger and better than ever before,” he continued.
In a statement, the NRSC fired back at Gunter, attacking him for previously having a Democratic voter registration in California.
“I don’t know why California Democrat Jeff Gunter is blaming the NRSC for his patients, saying he is a bad doctor,” said NRSC communications director Mike Berg. “I’m praying for your patients.”
More and more candidates are running for Senate seats and other high offices with no prior political experience, legislative voting record or other traditional areas of scrutiny for a politician. That means they’re placing more emphasis on private sector experience — and inviting greater scrutiny of business history, medical history and other careers, especially in competitive Senate races. Nevada is one of several Senate races this year, along with Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and others, where a Republican challenger is running for his first elected office.
Gunter’s practice, SummitMDhas 22 locations listed on its website in Arizona, Texas, California, and Nevada, and these practices receive considerably better reviews on Yelp and Google than Gunter’s on his personal page, ranging from 3.6 to 5.0 stars in locations with fur least 25 reviews.
“Dr. Gunter performs all of the surgery and is very professional, kind, and knowledgeable,” wrote a Google reviewer from one of his Nevada offices last year. “Would highly recommend.”
Gunter’s clinic was the subject of a 2022 California medical malpractice claim – a lawsuit in which the plaintiff alleged that an assistant caused a cotton swab dipped in an acidic solution to drip into her eye and suffered injuries as a result. The defendants – Gunter was not named among them – denied all allegations and the plaintiff subsequently requested that the case be dismissed. Steven Brandwein, the plaintiff’s attorney, said the case has been resolved and that a confidentiality agreement prevented further comment.
The candidate for the Senate was embraced by some prominent figures in the MAGA movement but is seen as an underdog in his race against retired Army Captain Sam Brown, who lost the 2022 Senate primary to former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt but is this time supported by the NRSC. The only real unforeseen event in the race is Donald Trump, who has not yet entered the contest, one of the only battleground races for Senate where he did not support. The election is scheduled for June 11 and Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in Las Vegas on Sunday.
In the ads, Gunter calls himself the most MAGA candidate in the contest and calls himself “110 percent pro-Trump.” He also attacked Brown as “Brown Strike.” Gunter’s rival did not initially support Trump this election cycle, but Brown supported him before the Iowa caucuses.
Brown’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Gunter also brings to the dispute a scathing report about him authored by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General, which found in a 2021 report that he fostered a “threatening and intimidating environment” at the embassy, adding that the then-ambassador’s “frequent failure to respect diplomatic protocol or to coordinate with the Icelandic government” led American diplomats to work around him during his tenure.
Responding to the OIG report, Erica Knight, Gunter’s spokeswoman, disputed in a statement to Politico last year that then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ever had to take action against him and added that embassy staff worked remotely during the pandemic, adding: “thanks to his leadership, the team had zero infections at the US embassy and zero deaths at US embassy.”
In another story that emerged from his ambassadorship, a dozen individuals familiar with the matter, including diplomats, government officials and others, told CBS News In 2020, Gunter, “paranoid” about his personal safety, requested a special permit to carry a firearm and requested door-to-door armored transport service.
Gunter was named ambassador after donating $100,000 to Trump’s political apparatus in 2016, plus another $100,000 to his inaugural committee, and has been a prodigious donor to conservative candidates, campaign finance records show. Much of his wealth comes from his medical practice, which he valued at up to $25 million in his financial disclosure.
“We need doctors to set our health policy, not Washington bureaucrats and politicians,” Gunter says on his campaign issues page, adding: “I have treated, cured and saved countless lives. And if there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that if you mix politics with medicine, you get politics, not patient care.”
For angry patients, however, little was contained.
“I’ve never written a Yelp review in my life,” wrote one upset patient on Yelp page for Gunter’s clinic in Lancaster, California, “but this time my assessment may save [someone] someone else’s life.”
A 2014 BuzzFeed News Report detailed that the emergence of review sites like RateMDs.com was shaking up the medical community and apparently being used by patients as “an alternative to costly and frustrating malpractice lawsuits.”
Not all criticism was so brutal. A 4.5-star review on RateMDs from April 2007 said Gunter was “a bit rushed between patients, but otherwise A-1.” A five-star rating on the website from July 2013 urged patients to “Just [understand] He’s not a chatty person.”
“He is a nice man and at the top of his game,” this person wrote. “BUSY because he’s good. … ASK questions when he addresses you. If you don’t do this, he will leave.”
Overall, the results were more positive in Yelp and Google, although negative reviews were interspersed. One patient wrote on Yelp in 2018 that she visited Gunter “about my acne and within weeks of seeing him, my skin is clear, my life is better, and I got a 10/10 boyfriend.”
But the passionate feelings behind the troubled experiences stood out.
“Worst doctor I’ve ever seen,” wrote one Yelp reviewer in 2014. “Don’t waste your time or money. Very impersonal. Enter the room and leave in 5 minutes. It doesn’t fully answer any of your questions. …Worst experience I’ve ever had with a doctor. It’s not worth his reputation.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
