Things for Dr. Ronny Jackson just seem to be getting worse.
I’ll reiterate here that much of what has been alleged still lacks substantiation, but senators with the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee are digging into it, having postponed Jackson’s confirmation hearing, in the meantime.
The news first broke on Tuesday that Democrats with the committee are saying they’ve received somewhere around 20 misconduct allegations against Jackson.
I told you earlier this morning about overseas trips, where medical staffers claim he’d become intoxicated, and in one instance, began banging on the hotel room door of a female staffer. It became so obnoxious that the Secret Service had to step in, because they feared he’d wake the president.
It’s a serious charge, considering the need for the White House doctor to be on call, at all times, in the event of a medical emergency with the president. It’s not really a job you can do if you’re fall down drunk.
To that point, there’s even a story of the White House attempting to reach Jackson, on at least one occasion, and after failing to do so, finding him passed out in his hotel room.
Now, further details of the allegations against Jackson are coming out.
Apparently, Jackson had a nickname among the medical staff: “The candy man.”
So what had to happen to get the nickname, “candy man”?
Tester, the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” that “in overseas trips, in particular, the admiral would go down the aisle way of the airplane and say, ‘All right, who wants to go to sleep?’ and hand out the prescription drugs like they were candy.”
Stunning.
I’m not even going to pretend that a medical professional occasionally dipping into the meds cart for something to help them rest or to ease off a backache is an unusual occurrence. I know it happens. It doesn’t make it right, but it’s not the worst thing in the world, either – as long as it doesn’t become a routine, or it’s not the heavy stuff.
We can’t ever allow ourselves to get comfortable with anyone in the medical profession riding with King Percocet.
All that being said, if this is going on with Jackson enough that it earned him a nickname, then there’s some abuse of the system, if not abuse of substances going on.
“That’s the reports that we got from the people, 20-something people, who got a hold of us and said, ‘We have a problem. This doctor has a problem because he hands out prescriptions like candy.’ In fact, in the White House they call him the candy man,” Tester said.
“That’s not a nickname that you want in a doctor and if you consider the prescription drugs we have a problem with in this country right now, it’s not the example we need to have set,” Tester added.
That’s a good point.
On Tuesday, President Trump seemed to be willing to step away from his VA secretary pick, but Jackson has said he intends to push on, rather than withdraw his name. Hearing that, the White House seemed satisfied and are maintaining their support for him.
For now, the investigation into the allegations against him continue, but if there is even a whiff of truth to any of these claims, then Jackson is simply not a good fit to serve in a Cabinet position.
He’s not even fit to continue on as the White House doctor, so let’s hope Trump has somebody else in the wings.
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