Senate puts Trump’s pick for VA on ice
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump acknowledged Tuesday that Dr. Ronny Jackson, his nominee to lead the Veterans Affairs Department, is in serious trouble amid accusations that as the White House doctor he oversaw a hostile work environment, improperly dispensed prescription drugs and possibly drank on the job.
Speaking at a midday news conference with the president of France, Trump strongly defended Jackson, the White House physician, as “one of the finest people that I have met,” but he hinted that Jackson might soon withdraw from consideration, blaming Democrats for mounting an unfair attack on his nominee’s record.
“I don’t want to put a man through a process like this,” Trump said. “The fact is, I wouldn’t do it. What does he need it for?”
By Tuesday evening, however, Trump and Jackson met face-toface, and the White House moved aggressively to defend the doctor against what the president had called “ugly” abuse by politicians. A White House statement said that Jackson’s record was “impeccable” and insisted that he would not be “railroaded” by false accusations.
The concern over Jackson’s nomination is bipartisan and emerged after Senate Veterans Affairs Committee interviews with more than 20 people, including current and former military personnel who had worked with him. The committee began an investigation last week into Jackson’s White House work record, and its Republican and Democratic leaders jointly announced Tuesday that his confirmation hearing, planned for Wednesday, would be postponed indefinitely “in light of new information presented to the committee.”
“We take very seriously our constitutional duty to thoroughly and carefully vet each nominee sent to the Senate for confirmation,” said Sens. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., the committee chairman, and Jon Tester of Montana, its top Democrat, in a joint statement. “We will continue looking into these serious allegations.”
Jackson, speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill before meeting with a Republican senator Tuesday afternoon, gave no indication that he would withdraw his nomination. He also did not answer questions about the accusations.
But he added, “I’m looking forward to getting it rescheduled and answering everybody’s questions.”
Members of Tester’s staff said that they had been given several credible accounts of Jackson being intoxicated during official White House travel. In several cases, they said, he had apparently grabbed his medical bag and was “attempting to assert himself,” to show he was in charge.
On one trip during Barack Obama’s presidency, White House staff needed to reach Jackson for medical reasons and 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 Jackson.
“He is the primary attendant of the president, the most powerful man in the world,” Tester said in an interview late Tuesday. “You don’t know when he is going to need you.”
Tester said that there was no evidence before the committee that Jackson had shown up drunk to the White House.
In response, White House officials described Jackson’s record as “impeccable,” and they distributed glowing comments that they said Obama wrote in Jackson’s annual military performance review.
Brian McKeon, who served as chief of staff for the Obama National Security Council, said he does not recall Jackson ever drinking to excess. “I am not even sure that I ever saw him in a hotel bar,” McKeon wrote in an email Tuesday.
Tester said that the committee had also received credible accusations that Jackson routinely distributed Ambien, a prescription sleep aid, which is not a narcotic, to White House staff and members of the news media flying on long overseas trips, as well as Provigil, a prescription drug for promoting wakefulness.
Tester said that he had spoken with John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, about the accusations on Monday. Kelly, he said, told him that the distribution of sleep aids and wakefulness drugs was “standard operating procedure.” Tester said he disagreed.
“We have a prescription drug problem in this country, and if we have doctors at the highest levels who are just handing them out like candy, we have a problem,” Tester said.
In a letter to the president on Tuesday, Tester and Isakson requested “any and all communication” between the Defense Department, the White House Military Office and the White House medical unit “regarding allegations or incidents” involving Jackson that date to 2006.
Tester said the committee had also received reports of a “toxic work environment” in the White House medical unit, which Jackson has overseen since 2013.
“That would involve belittling, screaming, verbally abusing the staff to the point where he would explode and the staff would feel they were on eggshells,” Tester said. He added that several of the people the committee had spoken with still work in the medical unit and are fearful of reprisals.
In 2012, a six-page report by the Navy’s medical inspector general found low morale and “unprofessional behaviors” as Jackson and his superior, Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, battled for control of the White House medical office.