In two early morning tweets, President Donald Trump went after Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) on Saturday, demanding his resignation for killing the nomination of White House doctor Ronny Jackson to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Allegations made by Senator Jon Tester against Admiral/Doctor Ron Jackson are proving false. The Secret Service is unable to confirm (in fact they deny) any of the phony Democrat charges which have absolutely devastated the wonderful Jackson family. Tester should resign. The…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 28, 2018
….great people of Montana will not stand for this kind of slander when talking of a great human being. Admiral Jackson is the kind of man that those in Montana would most respect and admire, and now, for no reason whatsoever, his reputation has been shattered. Not fair, Tester!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 28, 2018
Trump had already threatened Tester, the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans’ Committee on Thursday, saying the senator will “have a big price to pay.” In his rather lengthy rant on Fox & Friends, the president said, “I watch what Jon Tester, of Montana — a state that I won by, like, over 20 points. You know, really, they love me and I love them. And I want to tell you that Jon Tester, I think this is going to cause him a lot of problems in his state.”
Tester revealed numerous allegations against Jackson earlier this week:
Democratic US Sen. Jon Tester says embattled Veterans Affairs nominee Ronny Jackson was known for handing out prescriptions "like candy," adding that "in the White House they call him the candy man" https://t.co/kMZHGudoc5 pic.twitter.com/WXaPghCewv
— CNN International (@cnni) April 25, 2018
Tester, for the record, responded to President Trump’s tweets with a statement on Saturday saying it is his “duty to make sure Montana veterans get what they need and have earned,” adding “I’ll never stop fighting for them as their senator.”
Still, in calling for Tester’s resignation, the president seems to have forgotten about the many, many false claims he has made about others.
For instance, he pushed the “birther” conspiracy against President Barack Obama, repeatedly claiming that the former president was not born the U.S.
Trump also accused Hillary Clinton of “lying to the FBI” in the investigation into her use of a private e-mail server, even though former FBI Director James Comey said this was not the case.
(It does, however, seem that the president might have lied to Comey when he told him that he had not spent the night in Russia on a 2013 trip. But during Thursday’s Fox & Friends phone-in, Trump acknowledged that he did, in fact, spend the night there).
The president also accused Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn) of being responsible for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (which the president is trying to undo), even though Corker voted against it:
Bob Corker gave us the Iran Deal, & that's about it. We need HealthCare, we need Tax Cuts/Reform, we need people that can get the job done!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2017
None of these things was true, and if an apology was made for any of the accusations, it was not made public.
Jackson withdrew his nomination on Thursday, but the president has continued to go after Tester, accusing him of a smear campaign against his nominee, who remains on staff as the White House doctor.
Aside from the allegations revealed by Tester, there were concerns about Jackson’s lack of experience running an organization as large as Department of Veterans Affairs.