President Trump should have vetted White House physician Ronny Jackson prior to asking him to lead the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. But that’s not the key issue in this episode.
The key issue is whether the U.S. Navy rear admiral is guilty of the things for which he stands accused, including that he overprescribed medications to White House staffers and members of the press; that he was once “passed out drunk in his hotel room” when he was supposed to be on call; that he once crashed a government vehicle because he was intoxicated; and that he oversaw an “abusive” and “volatile” work environment.
To be clear, Jackson has not been found guilty of anything. He has not apologized or confessed to any charge. Without incontrovertible proof or an admission of wrongdoing, he is an innocent man. But it’s certainly worth investigating the charges surrounding his conduct as White House physician. The role he holds now, and the role to which he has been nominated, are far too weighty and consequential to be trusted to a morally unethical actor.
Whether the allegations are true is the important issue — not the fact that Trump put the doctor in a position to have his alleged misconduct uncovered. To focus on the latter rather than the former seems a misapplication of anger and attention. Yet, the president’s failure to vet Jackson prior to nominating him is precisely what a few media commentators are focusing on, with some appearing to suggest that Trump has wronged the doctor in some way.
“I like how Trump has now ruined Ronny Jackson’s life and career for no reason,” said Vox’s Matt Ygelsias.
Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo’s editor and publisher, said in a similar note elsewhere, “so basically trump nominated jackson on a whim and now his career is probably destroyed.”
New York Daily News columnist Brandon Friedman said elsewhere, “I don’t feel an ounce of sympathy for anyone who chooses to associate with Trump. You know you’re going to end up humiliated. That’s what you signed up for.”
How on earth could Trump’s failure to do basic vetting become the worst thing about this story? Is the president’s casual failure to do even the most basic research on his VA nominee really the takeaway here, and not the fact that 23 current and former colleagues have characterized Jackson as “toxic,” “despicable,” and “vindictive”?
Are we supposed to be sympathetic towards the doctor because Trump’s bungling of the nomination process may have inadvertently outed a man who is unfit to hold both the position of White House physician and VA secretary?
If it turns out the charges against Jackson are overblown or outright fabrications, then Marshall and Yglesias would be sort of correct to say Trump’s due diligence failure caused needless harm and humiliation. But even then, the people who leveled the charges would be most responsible for harming the White House doctor.
And if it turns out Trump’s failure to vet Jackson ends up outing an unethical and morally dubious actor, the president still wouldn’t be responsible for a “ruined” or “destroyed” career. Jackson is, after all, wholly accountable for his own actions.
