President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon called Ronny Jackson, the White House physician who withdrew as the nominee to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, “an American hero” for exposing the Washington political system.
“In a very big way, you’re an American hero because you’ve exposed a system for some horrible things,” Trump said he told Jackson over the phone earlier on Friday.
“I’ve had it happen to me with the Russian collusion hoax,” Trump added.
Before calling Jackson a hero, Trump said that it was a “disgrace” to see Jackson’s record tarnished by “false accusations.”
Jackson withdrew his nomination following several reports from congressional Democrats alleging that Jackson drank excessively on the job, was lax in handing out prescriptions for sleeping aids and mistreated his employees. Both Jackson and Trump have insisted that the allegations are false, but Jackson nonetheless withdrew his name Thursday morning.
Trump calls Ronny Jackson an “American hero” for exposing “horrible things” in the system pic.twitter.com/JUhxj8hmLg
— David Taintor (@davidtaint) April 27, 2018
