white house correspondents dinner. a tranquil veevent right now. people are happy. on the right side is where the president has just arrived. his rally in michigan. police officers are in full force as we are now starting to see confrontations between the president s supporters who are turning out for his rally and counterprotesters. who have also shown up to rally against what the president is doing there in their state. you can hear the chanting, our diane gallagher is continuing to keep an eye on the emotions and tensions on the ground. so far she tells us things have remained peaceful, yet impassioned. now, the president has been very busy on twitter today, calling on democratic senator john tester to resign after apoetzing trump s pick to run veterans affairs. senator tester, however, says it s not going to happen. in a just released statement, he writes, it is my duty to make sure montana veterans get what they need and have earned and i ll never stop fighting for
them as their senator. the president tweeted, quote, allegations made by john tester against ron jackson are proving false. the secret service is unable to confirm, in fact, they deny any of the phony democratic charges which have absolutely devastated the wonderful jackson family. tester should resign. the allegations the president is referring to were made by 23 of jackson s former and current colleagues. the secret service has since released a statement, saying it had no record of any incidents involving jackson, but jackson has now withdrawn his nomination to run the v.a. i want to talk this over with our janel. joining us, cnn political commentator ben ferguson and cnn political commentator maria cardona. so, ben, president trump could be ending this week, touting major foreign policy with north korea, with france, with angela merkel from germany. instead, he is fueling a fight with a u.s. senator over a nominee he failed to vet. why? well, i think it s because it s personal for
charged with handling the confirmation process for jackson. it was tester who brought to light the allegations that jackson loosely prescribed pan medications, that he was intoxicated while on the job. and that he did things to contribute to a hostile work environment. now, the white house has produced its own documents. its own information, which it says exonerates jackson against those allegations. and the president today was tweeting on that topic. here s what he wrote. he says this, the allegations made by senator john tester against admiral/dr. ron jackson are proving false. the secret service deny any of the phony democrat charges which had absolutely devastated the wonderful jackson family. tester showed resign. he goes on to say admiral jackson is the kind of man those in montana would most respect and admire. now for no reason whatsoever his reputation has been shattered. not fair, tester. i ve spoken with several current and former white house officials who say they know ronn
report for the los angeles times. how do you read the president s tweets? do you think it is more of a political move? is it just a vengeful move? what are you thinking here? i think what we usually see with the president s twitter, basically he tweets about whatever is on his mind and this is on his mind at the moment. are we going to see this going through the midterms? i don t know. he ll move on to his next subject, the next politician who crosses his path. but i do think this is an interesting case study. there were questions about dr. jackson s qualifications to run the va. there s also the question of vetting, which is something we ve seen with this white house over and over again. a lack of vetting that could potentially protect the white house in cases like this. you know, let s bring in the white house reporter for nbc news digital. given where you are, you re there at the white house. i m curious at what you re seeing in terms of the mood in the fallout of dr. jackson s
for joining us, welcome to america s news headquarters from washington. i m elizabeth prann. leland: great to be with you, and great to be with you at home on this saturday, i m leland vittert. the president demanding the resignation of a democratic senator as the white house continues their defense of one times veterans affair nominee ronny jackson. the tweet comes hours before the president snubs the washington media elite and heads to michigan for a rally. alison barber, north lawn of the white house on this beautiful saturday. hi. hi, leland. that s right, president trump is calling on a sitting u.s. senator to resign over allegations he publicly discussed regarding president trump s now former nominee to head the department of veteran affairs. in a series of tweets, writes in part, allegations made by senator john tester against admiral ron jackson are false. they deny any of the phony