His family, extraordinary success. Great doctor, great everything. He has to listen to the abuse he has to if i were him, actually, in many ways id love to be him. But the fact is, i wouldnt do it. I wouldnt do it. What does he need it for . To be abused by a bunch of politician that arent thinking nicely about our country . I really dont think personally he should do it. Its totally his. I would stand behind him. Totally his decision. Okay. Now trump tapped jackson for the job after firing at that time previous head of the va, David Shulkin who came on this show after his firing and told me trumps political appointees at the agency conspired against him because he refused to move quickly to privatize the va. Jackson does not have the sort of resume that would prepare him to lead the va with its more than 375,000 employees. Before his nomination, he was most famous for his remarkably rosy assessment of the president s health which
included references to trumps incredibly good genes and the claim with a better diet, trump could live to be 200 years old. The hearing was postponed this morning as reports surfaced concerning allegations of misconduct in his past. Dr. Jackson, can you say anything at all about these allegations that have come out against you in the last few days. I was looking forward to the hearing tomorrow. Disappointed its been postponed. Looking forward to answering everybodys questions. Youve seen the allegations, hostile work environment, drinking on the job, overprescribing medications. Are you saying those are untrue . Im saying im looking forward to the hearings so i can explain top everyone and answer all the questions. Two sources told nbc news allegations include overprescription of medications although Prior White House reviews found nothing out of ordinary. Jon tester, the Ranking Member of the veterans fairs committee
detailed the allegations. What kind of Prescription Drugs are we talking about. Most of them are the ones that make you want to sleep and make you wake up. We had 20 military folks and retired military folks tell us these stories. These were doled out on overseas trips where theres a lot of time zone changes. The previous administration, they were told stories where he was repeatedly drunk while on duty where his main job was to take care of the most powerful man in the world. Some of the exact words used by the folks we talked to were abusive toward staff, explosive personality, belittles the folks underneath him. Dr. Jackson yet to address those specific allegations that will jerry moran said today that jackson denied allegations of having a hostile it workplace. Jackson claimed there had never been an Inspector General report about those allegations but a short time after he said that, after those comments, the ap
reported well, actually, 2012 Watchdog Report ordered up by jackson found he and a Rival Physician exhibited unprofessional behaviors as they engaged in a Power Struggle over the white house medical unit. According to bloomberg news, jackson decided after meeting with trump today he will not withdraw his nomination. Administration source told nbc news he feels the allegations against him are false and wants to air them out in a hearing. For more on the controversy surrounding dr. Ronny jackson, sherrod brown, a member of the Senate Veterans affairs committee. Senator, do you have access to the same information that jon tester has and what are your conclusions, have you drawn based on it . Yeah, i talked to Senator Tester a number of times since last late last week when people started coming forward. As he said, more than 20 people, many of them active duty, all of them either veterans or active duty have come forward and told these stories in detail that
makes it credible. These are people that theyre not willing to put their names out there yet because they know there can be a vindictive commander in chief. These are people who have worn the countrys uniform who had no reason at all to come forward except that they know that the secretary of the va is responsible for the health care of 9 Million People and 9 million men and women who have served our country. Thats a pretty awesome responsibility. Thats why Senator Tester and i take this vote so seriously. Its why when i met with dr. Jackson, i pushed him really hard on the whole issue of privatization because every Veterans Group i talk to from the paralyzed veterans of america, vfw, am vets, they all are very concerned about shulkins firing as you showed in your show that he was fired because he pushed back against privatization. In what position might jackson take when his record clearly is
to be very nice to his superiors and his, quote unquote, equals and theater those that he considers inferior in a pretty bad way. So we want to know more about this. The republican chairman is the one that delayed the meeting. So its not 9 hearing. President trump can blame democrats like he always does. I would encourage people to come to sherrod brown. Com and say look out for veterans. Dont do the bidding of the Koch Brothers. Before these allegations happened, there was a real question just at a basic level of resume if Ronny Jacksons qualified for the position. Whats your feeling about that independent of what were learning now . Well, i dont think we knew. You learn a lot of Leadership Training by becoming an admiral in the United States navy. However, this is an agency thats the most complicated one of the two or three most
agencys most complicated to run in the government. We recall had questions to does he have the management skills. What i honed in on with him, what are you going to do when the political people in the white house push so hard for privatization . Do the Koch Brothers bidding . Thats what theyre all about to the point i was going to ask at the hearing, how hard are you going to fight, are you willing to be fired making that fight for veterans because i dont know any veterans organizations or individual veterans, the hundreds of veterans i talking to pretty regularly in ohio, i dont know of any that think that privatizing it it the va does anything except enrich the owners of the new privatized va and compromise the care of veterans. Thats why were building a whole Campaign Including on sho sherrod brown. Com to say sign this petition and fight against privatization. If jackson withdraws or we dont confirm him, im equally concerned about the next one,
may not more qualified. May not have a toxic work environment. Im concerned theyre going to do what every veteran i know doesnt want and that is to privatize. Senator, i appreciate your time tonight. For more on what the Ronny Jackson fiasco reveals how this president governs, im joined by Jennifer Rubin and sam seder, host of the majority report podcast. Jennifer, this seems part of a larger pattern. What do you make of it. Yeah, you think . You know, you could throw darts at a board and come up with better people than this. And this is going on mind you at the same time scott pruitt, the administrator of the epa is immersed in scandals. This comes after hhs secretary tom price was fired. This comes after there have been incidents of misuse of Taxpayer Funds by the treasury secretary, by the interior secretary. This is pandemic in this administration. I think there are two problems. One is President Trump doesnt have any ethical standards for himself and than message has gone out. So that his, the people who work for him dont feel like they have to babe themselves either. The second is that trump doesnt know anything about the government. He doesnt know what these people do. He doesnt note what it takes to be a good head of the va. So he hires people because i like him or because he says nice things about him or because he says he passed the mental test. This is nonsense. But it has very serious ramifications because these are real peoples lives. Everyone knows the stories about veterans waiting in line to get medical services dying. Its an atrocious abuse of his power to appoint people. Frankly, the senate for one should stand up to him and reject this candidate. They are serious about going through with him. To jennifers point there as a list of a few of the people that had to step down when prior misconduct. The chief of external affair
americorps, the president s Personal Assistant escorted off the white house. Rob porter who was accused by both exwives of domestic abuse. Theres a pattern here. There are it seems to me, the president talks about veterans and how important they are. What conclusion can you draw about the importance of them to him based on this process . Well, i mean, look, he has no governing agenda and to the extent that weve heard one come out of this administration, deconstruction of the Administrative State has been and theres no reason to believe thats not still operative. When you dont have agenda, a positive agenda you want government to do, if you are a member of a party that has had espoused and still maintains a philosophy that government is an obstacle as opposed to something a force for good that can do things, the idea of putting people in who are going to do their job well is not even its not something contemplated. They are there to act as a
conduit to privatize, to basically strip the government of its services, you see this in agency after agency. Whether its the doj which is run fairly well relatively speaking. Yes. But still, you have you know, a guy like sessions who is essentially pulling back on many of the functions we anticipate for a doj. You see the same thing with the Environmental Protection agency which is almost a joke to call it a Protection Agency at this point. You see it across the board. The idea of Installing Someone who is going to operate the va as opposed to figure out how to dole it out to private interests, were operating on two different planes here. When we criticize them for incompetent because were assuming that they have the same agenda that people who actually have a faith in government do. Josh marshall, has a phrase dignity race to refer to the president. Heres josh in the west saying this, that jackson besieged by all sorts of accusations offered
to drop his nomination this afternoon. Trump said no, to fight. The nomination has been handled disastrously. Can it be saved . You know, what is Ronny Jackson supposed to make of this. My goodness. Within the same sentence, trump contradicts himself. He sounded like he was telling him to step down earlier in the day. So dr. Jackson is entitled to be very confused, maybe he wants to rethink his analysis of the mental acute of the president. I dont know if he is serious. This is trump not wanting to admit he made a stupid pick. Not wanting to admit that this person is not going to get through. Goodness knows whether tomorrow trump will wake up and start tweeting Something Else or not. This is exactly why its so dangerous to have a senate that is so ob seek weious, so subservient to the president because They Dont Act as they should, which is a collect on a president who doesnt give a darn who he appoints as with
judges a lifetime appointment. Like we saw with shulkin where he was ef supposed by calling him to fire him and got off the phone and shulkin thought it was a normal conversation. He said it on my show the next day. He said i got off. I didnt realize there was anything wronging. When he has one to one contact with a person is an fwrad to deliver the bad news. He was hoping he would show up at the meeting. Take the hint. He would have heard trump with macron and said, look, i heard what you said. Youre right. I dont need this. Trump would have been im sorry to hear that. He clearly is afraid to raise it with him when hes there in person. Its bizarre. Jennifer to your point, i think this nomination if they want to fight this out and forge ahead this is taking on a lot of water. Theyre in very serious trouble having it voted down in humiliating fashion. Absolutely. There is not an instances in,
its going to be basic competency and misconduct. This is the problem with trumps orbit. A guy who did have a nice career as a doctor, suddenly is put in a position he is no way qualified to hold and his life comes part at the seamses. This is trump. Anything he touches as rick wilson says, dies. This is the problem. I would also add that anybody who makes the sort of i guess positive choice to join this fiasco, immediately is suspect in terms of their judgment at this point. Who is going to follow, who is going to follow this fiasco. David shulkin had a sterling reputation, got unanimously confirmed to this role before he ended up with his reputation in tatters. Theres a strong pattern here. Jennifer, sam, great to have you both. Next, the president snaps at a reporter who dared to ask him about pardoning Michael Cohen but he could be getting
important backup in the new york investigation of his lawyer. The story of Jeff Sessions and his nonrecuse in two minutes. So in this commercial we see two travelers at a comfort inn with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, wow, maybe ill glow too if i book direct at choicehotels. Com. Who glows . Just say, badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Purchase president , what about Michael Cohen . Are you considering a pardon for him. Thank you very much. Stupid question. Okay. The president Wasnt In The Mood to answer that but he might be happy to see this headline saying his Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions has declined to recuse himself from the investigation into Michael Cohen. Bloomberg adds sessions will consider stepping back from specific questions tied to the probe according to a person familiar with the bhater. I want to bring in me me rocha in the Southern District of new york a former assistant u. S. Attorney in charge cohens case at the moment. Thanks. First the reaction to the source saying that sessions declined to recuse from the entire cohen case. Is that surprising . I think its not surprising at this moment. Heres why. Right now, the Southern District has not identified what statutes publicly identified what statutes are being investigated with cohen. Cohen knows. That was on the Search Warrant. But in the briefs they filed and in court, theyve actually blacked out what statutes. Nowhere is it listed that theyre investigating the Campaign Finance laws. That would be the basis for recusal right now. The recusal would be if sessions, you know, if we know that this investigation is going to Campaign Finance violations and sessions obviously had a major part in the campaign, then he should recuse himself. He has a little wiggle room right now i think. You know, the problem with this is that so you know, hes not saying im not recusing myself forever as i understand it. Im going by the reports. Hes saying right now and ill look at it later. Maybe hes buying himself some time. Maybe theres wiggle room. It looks bad because of what trump has said in the past, pressuring and badgering sessions about recusing him on russia. It feels like youre possibly inviting the president to labby you. Yeah. I mean, its going to put sessions in an unbelievable uncomfortable position because i mean, donald trump we know he called cohen the next day. Hes not going to be able to control himself from asking sessions Whats Going On. The other point worth making here is you know, now that this is in the Southern District of new york, i realize this is an extremely high profile unusual investigation because it was referred from the Special Counsel. But the Southern District of new york has high profile cases all the time. Yes, they do. Worldcom, Martha Stewart it, terrorism investigations. There are certain Consultation Requirements for example, they consulted with the office of Enforcement Operations on the Search Warrant. Thats something you have to do anytime youre seeking a Search Warrant for a lawyer. They dont have to consult with
the Attorney General on really much of anything. Now, again, its high profile. They might want to. He may want to have a some say. At the end of the day, most of the calls in this case should come from the Southern District of new york. If they dont, thats a sign to me somethings wrong. Thats interesting. I guess one thing im having a hard time figuring out is the reporting in the beginning this was referred out of the investigation, the Mueller Investigation<