White House Can’t Believe People Are Skeptical of Its Comically Unqualified V.A. Nominee
In what has become a regularly scheduled event for the Trump administration, back in March Donald Trump nominated a completely unqualified individual for a major job in the federal government. In this case, the individual in question was White House doctor Ronny Jackson, who the president, in his infinite wisdom, decided was the best candidate to replace David Shulkin as secretary of Veterans Affairs, after the commander in chief slash social-media guru fired Shulkin via tweet. While Jackson is, by all accounts, a capable doctor who served the previous two presidents after returning from Iraq, he has no management experience whatsoever, which is the sort of thing that has historically been a prerequisite for running a 360,000-person, nearly $200 billion federal agency. But don’t mention that to the Trump administration, which, in the face of criticism re: Dr. Ronny, has adopted the official position of basically responding, How DARE you?
Axios reports that with Jackson’s confirmation hearing coming up this week, senior officials and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including some on the Veterans Affairs committee, are “growing increasingly concerned about Ronny Jackson’s prospects to be confirmed.” Senator Jerry Moran, a Republican from Kansas who sits on the V.A. committee, delicately told The Hill that Jackson “doesn’t have the experience you’d think would traditionally be required at the V.A..” Senator Mike Rounds, a Republican from South Dakota, noted that while Jackson understands health care, he “has very limited background in terms of managing groups.” In the West Wing, the doctor is “well-liked,” but some senior officials are said to be skeptical that he has the necessary experience. Yet while chief of staff John Kelly reportedly believed it was “unwise” for Trump to Twitter-nominate Jackson “so quickly without going through all the due diligence that a normal Cabinet nomination process would involved,” he has nonetheless opted to, “aggressively [defend] Jackson” and his lack of qualifications.
The White House, it seems, has landed on a similar strategy. When asked by Axios about Dr. Ronny’s anemic résumé, White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short responded: “Ronny Jackson is a small-town kid who went to medical school, volunteered to serve our nation in uniform, has risen all the way up to Admiral, treated wounded soldiers in combat, has a dad who’s a veteran and a son who’s a Navy SEAL, has personally served multiple presidents, and yet members of Congress who have never managed a thing outside of their own congressional office have the audacity to say he’s not qualified before he even has a hearing.” And hey, those are all really nice things! He sounds like a great guy! It’s just that Short’s outraged explanation fails to explain why Jackson is qualified for the massive job at hand.
As for his chances of being confirmed, according to Jonathan Swan, administration officials are “trying to intensely prepare” Jackson for his hearing. Last month, a longtime Republican lobbyist, referring to Jackson’s odds of being confirmed put it to Axios like this: “Harriet Miers.” To which see your Miers and raise you a Betsy DeVos.
