The Negligent Nomination of Ronny Jackson
For the third time in four months, Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson is at the center of a surprising report.
The first time came in January, when Jackson, the White House physician, announced that President Trump was in excellent physical and mental health, offering an endorsement so effusive that some were led to question Jackson’s judgment.
The second came in March, when President Trump fired Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and announced that he would nominate Jackson to succeed him. Though Jackson is a flag officer in the Navy, he had never run anything nearly as large and complicated as the federal government’s second-largest bureaucracy.
The third came Monday night, with a series of vague to slow down or derail his nomination. Senators were tight-lipped about what they might mean, including an elegantly tautological comment from Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, who said the allegations were troubling “only if true.” Since then, a few new details have emerged. and report the allegations include a hostile work environment in the White House medical office, drinking on the job, and overprescribing medications.
