Ronny Jackson banged on female employee’s door while drunk during overseas trip: report

In the most detailed account yet of the accusations against Veterans Affairs nominee Ronny Jackson, CNN reported Tuesday evening that there were multiple episodes of drunken behavior on overseas trips.

Citing “four sources familiar with the allegation,” CNN reported that in one 2015 episode, when he was the White House physician to President Barack Obama, the Navy admiral drunkenly and loudly banged on the hotel door of a female employee.

“The incident became so noisy, one source familiar with the allegation told CNN, that the Secret Service stopped him out of concern that he would wake then-President Barack Obama,” CNN wrote.

Adm. Jackson’s actions were “definitely inappropriate, in the middle of the night,” and made the woman uncomfortable, one former staffer with the White House Medical Unit told CNN.

The network reported that Adm. Jackson had multiple such drunken episodes on official foreign trips, but did not detail the other ones.

Sen. Jon Tester, Montana Democrat and a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, confirmed that drunkenness was involved in the allegations that caused the panel to delay a confirmation hearing on Adm. Jackson while it investigates.

“If you are drunk and something happens with the president, it’s very difficult to go in and treat the president,” he said in an interview with CNN. “That’s what multiple people told us this was the case on several different trips.”

Sen. Jerry Moran, Kansas Republican, said he had met Adm. Jackson earlier Tuesday and the VA nominee had denied to him the accusations, including drinking on the job.

“He indicated that he knows of nothing that would prohibit him from being qualified, capable and the right person to the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs,” Mr. Moran said.