White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders tried to defend President Trump’s failure to vet his VA Secretary nominee, whose nomination has been imperiled by rather stunning accusations of being drunk on the job, over-prescribing medication and harassing female employees.
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“In fact, because Dr. Jackson has worked within arm’s reach of three presidents, he has received more vetting than most nominees,” Sanders said, referring to White House physician Ronny Jackson.
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“Given his unique position of trust and responsibility, Dr. Jackson’s background and character were evaluated during three different administrations,” Sanders said.
Yeah, that’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works. “Vetting” is not done passively, it is not done because someone was around the White House. Vetting is an active process that no one should have to explain to Sarah Huckabee Sanders or anyone in the White House at all.
Furthermore, leading the Veterans Affairs department is not the same thing as being a physician in the White House. Either Sanders is pretending not to understand reality or she is continuing her war against it on behalf of her boss. But this is not up for debate and cannot be excused: Leading a huge, important department is not the same thing as taking Donald Trump’s temperature or pretending he has no health challenges.
Sanders said Jackson had undergone four different background investigations and had received glowing recommendations from his superiors, including former President Barack Obama.
See how they tried to blame Obama again? If Obama gave Jackson a glowing recommendation, and we can’t know that he did based on the word of anyone in the Trump administration and it would be reckless to report this as if it were an established fact just because they claimed it given their allergy to the truth, he did so regarding Jackson as a White House doctor.
Would Trump hire Jackson to lead the strategy against ISIS because he was a decent doctor? Because that is the level of conflation going on here. But then again, Trump thought he would make a good president based on his failure as a businessman. So… Deep layers here.
The top Democrat on the Senate committee considering the nomination, John Tester, said that the panel received allegations that Jackson had improperly distributed sleeping pills, drank excessive amounts of alcohol on overseas trips and oversaw a toxic work environment.
The Trump White House would justify appointing someone to lead the interior because they had a tree in their back yard and then blame Obama for their choice when it inevitably failed. But just like they hired Mike Flynn, who was fired by Obama, and then tried to blame Obama for their choice, the blame Obama game is way past its rancid date and all we are left with is a White House so antithetical to the truth they are doubling down on claims that they vetted Jackson because he’s been around the White House taking temperatures.
This White House has admitted before that they relied on previous vetting. Which is to say, they are not doing their job but just picking people they “like” and then when it fails, they blame Obama, blame Democrats, and cry about previous vetting.
Try that at your job today and see where it gets you: ‘Hey, boss, I don’t need to do my job today because I’m gonna rely on previous work.’ But work is for the little people, not the privileged apparently.
(Additional reporting by Reuters’ Roberta Rampton)
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