Dr. Ronny Jackson Withdraws as VA Secretary Nominee
Jackson described the allegations against him as “false and fabricated.”
Dr. Ronny Jackson has withdrawn his name from consideration to lead the Veterans Affairs Department after days of allegations of inappropriate behavior since 2006.
*This is breaking news. Will update as more information comes out.
The Associated Press reported that Jackson called the allegations “false and fabricated.”
Here is Jackson’s full statement:
Full statement from Dr. Ronny Jackson on his decision to withdraw his nomination: pic.twitter.com/QJ0wE7KDm9
— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) April 26, 2018
President Donald Trump joined Fox & Friends this morning:
President @realDonaldTrump reacts to Dr. Ronny Jackson withdrawing his nomination to be VA Secretary pic.twitter.com/SzRCaBCKIA
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) April 26, 2018
It looks like Jackson is still at the White House:
White House @PressSec says Dr. Jackson remains on duty as White House physician, at least today. "Admiral Jackson is a doctor in the United States Navy assigned to the White House and is here at work today,” she says in statement.
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) April 26, 2018
On Wednesday, The New York Times published an article that contained a summary of allegations against Jackson from 23 former and current colleagues. What got me is that these stem back to 2006 and yet former President Barack Obama and Trump kept him as White House physician:
During an overseas trip by the Obama administration in 2015, Dr. Jackson went out drinking, came back to the delegation’s hotel and began banging on the door of a staff member’s hotel room, according to an account shared with Mr. Tester. The noise was so loud that members of the Secret Service came to see what was happening and warned Dr. Jackson to be quiet so he would not wake the president, who was staying nearby.
The episode was first reported by CNN.
On another trip during Barack Obama’s presidency, White House staff members reached out to Dr. Jackson for medical reasons but found him passed out in his hotel room after a night of drinking, Tester aides said. The staff members took the medical supplies they were looking for without waking Dr. Jackson.
A former colleague told the Associated Press that Jackson had the nickname “Candyman” because of the way he distributed medications:
The “Candyman” nickname was also cited in the summary released by the Democrats.
In a section on Jackson’s prescribing practices, the summary said that in one case, missing Percocet tabs threw members of the White House Medical Unit into a panic — but it turned out he had prescribed a “large supply” of the opioid to a White House Military Office staffer.
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Comments
So … the Union(s) got what they want.
Shut the VA down. Get rid of all those PROTECTED union jobs.
The VA is nothing more than a Dem / Union payoff.
I agree – SHUT IT DOWN!
Give our vets covered healthcare at anywhere they care to get treatment and be done with it. It would still be cheaper AND better service than a VA hospital.
The Albany, NY Stratton VA Medical Center had to send me to Albany Med for treatment of my AFIB. That the VA Hospital couldn’t treat something so common gave me pause. A super cardiologist fixed me up and after the VA mistreated my follow-on pneumonia I went back to using my retiree Tricare.
God I hate the left
I agree and again, where is the Republican leadership? Ryan should vacate immediately and McConnell needs to be kicked to the curb. Two more years Mitch.
Whether or not much of anything is true from all of these accusations, one thing is clear to me: The goal right now of the Dems and the bureaucracy (and oddballs like Bill Kristol, et al) is to make serving Trump in any way the most odious thing possible. Whether in an official government role such as secretary, or as legal support, you have to be willing to be vilified on a daily basis in order to even let it be known you are considering the job.
The rumors and knocks listed here came from the Obama people. Who apparently thought Dr Jackson was a drunken, loud lout, totally unsuitable to head the VA, but good enough to be the Obama family physician. Right.
Well, maybe 0bama needed a candyman.
Given that Obama gave him a glowing performance evaluation each year, there may be something to that.
No, not a chance. If Dr. Jackson *did* have any kind of dirt on 44 in that fashion, he would not be abused in this fashion by the press and the Left. They would be too afraid it would leak out.
“Look! Dr. Jackson was passing piles of pills to… um… Squirrel! Look at the squirrel!”
The most prominent member of the Choom Gang? Say it ain’t so!
if obama had any integrity, LOL, he would have come out to support his former Dr (who HE promoted to rear Admiral).
False and fabricated is good enough for people at this point.
Veterans died in waiting rooms under previous VA confirmations by the Senate, but this doctor, who never had a potus die on his 12 year watch at the White House, is somehow unfit because of allegations he boozed it up like a Kennedy?
Once again, no one ever died on his watch or in his car. That’s a pretty low bar for VA director or DC, in general. Yet, the malignant marxist mob has to set their hair on fire and declare the end of the republic for a guy who was a democrat darling in Obama’s WH. But now, #resistance because TrumpHate.
Leftists must be eliminated BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY (politically speaking, of course).
Good enough be to the President’s doctor, good enough to be a Navy Doctor but not good enough to be our head military doctor. Hmmm, drunks in the government? Kennedy?
I sure hope that this bites them good. I wish he would have testified and let the accusations come out. I would have loved to hear him rail them about HIPPA Laws and bring up how the Union is screwing our vets over.
Just for the sake of reality, the head of the VA is NOT the “head military doctor”. That would be the respective Surgeons General of the branches of the uniformed services.
There’s nothing about being the head of the VA that suggests the position be filled by a physician.
And, while being deferential to Dr. Jackson’s record as a doctor, there was nothing to suggest he would make a good administrator of the nation’s second (IIRC) largest bureaucracy.
I wish him a long and successful career in the field he chose and has worked in.
Typical politics of personal destruction, allegations made for political reasons are given more weight to convict than facts are these days. I am so sick of the ruling class.
I truly believe they want a civil war breaking out. What they might get if they succeed is a Revolution.
This is one of the things that the left has done that enrages me. I don’t believe what they’ve said. The most I’ll grant them is that they’ve twisted the telling of events. Do decent people ruin a man’s reputation purely for political gain?
I would love a report to ask Obama if he would vouch for him.
With one hundred Senators using the mere hint of imperfection as a disqualifier, there is no chance any decent citizen with even a modicum of dignity will ever accept an appointment to the US Government.
Until we hold all the alligators in the swamp to a reasonable standard of proof, the swamp will continue to consume our pool of human resources.
one easy trick to improve the VA overnight:
all employees and their families MUST get all their healthcare at VA facilities too.
you’re welcome. 😎
This is one of those moments when a truly radical (gets to the roots) solution could be viable.
Privatize the furnishing of medical care to veterans. Take it back.
This is character assassination, straight up.
And sadly, as per usual with the media-megaphoned left, it has taken out the target.
Hope he is able to move on and do good things. Time will tell, no doubt, that this was all fabricated…..
Who wants a guy around who had a finger up obama’s rectum, massaging his prostate once a year?
Let kirstin killbrand shake his hand.
Oh well. At least we’re beginning to get the insanity of the obama administration on the record.