Senator Johnny Isakson, who is the GOP chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, on Tuesday defended Democratic Senator Jon Tester saying that President Donald Trump is wrong to say all of the allegations against his pick to lead the VA are wrong.
Responding to a CNN reporter at a rotary club meeting, Isakson pointed to a report that he said verified some of the allegations made against Jackson that were also part of the memo released by Tester last week.
Meanwhile, Trump asked Tester, who is the ranking Democrat on the Veterans Affairs panel, to resign over the memo.
The Washington Post reported that Isakson said the report, which involves allegations against Jackson made by Vice President Pence’s physician, showed that Trump made a “false statement” when he said the allegations against Jackson were not true.
“Fortunately last night, a story broke that made that a false statement,” Isakson said. “Because part of the allegations made in one of the affidavits was verified. Where allegations that had been incorporated in some of the complaints against Admiral Jackson were validated in that. So it looks like there’s a story that corroborates the fact that there were some of those allegations that were correct.”
The story Isakson referred to shows that Pence’s physician had raised alarms within the White House about Jackson as a result of a confrontation with Jackson he had over whether Jackson violated federal privacy protections for Karen Pence, the vice president’s wife.
CNN also reported that Pence’s physician wrote a memo in which he said he felt intimidated by Jackson and treated unprofessionally.
The allegations in the memo released by Tester, apparently based on 23 different sources, included charges that Jackson was contributing to a hostile work environment as well as drinking on the job and over-prescribing pills.
Trump bashed at Tester over his role in surfacing the allegations against Jackson, calling them “vicious rumors.”
“Allegations made by Senator Jon Tester against Admiral/Doctor Ron Jackson are proving false,” Trump wrote on Twitter, adding that Tester “should lose race in Montana.”
Be the first to comment