Popular vote loser Donald Trump has decided to take on Democratic Montana Sen. Jon Tester over his role in stopping the nomination of White House physician Ronny "Candyman" Jackson to head up the Department of Veterans Affairs. That Trump's doing this in defense of Jackson—the guy who Trump himself admitted wasn't up to the job—is a typically stupid Trump move. That the National Republican Senatorial Committee is joining in is just ridiculous.
Trump's Super PAC is spending $344,000 to air a commercial attacking Tester on Fox News and broadcast stations throughout Montana.
“In Montana, we value integrity and support our president,” says the ad from the pro-Trump America First Action super PAC. “But Jon Tester spread false information about a respected Navy admiral, helping D.C. Democrats derail President Trump’s Veterans Affairs nominee.”
The spot goes on to say that Tester, one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents up for reelection in 2018, “betrayed our trust, our veterans and our president,” concluding that “it’s time for him to go.”
In actuality, Tester is one of the 10 most popular senators, sitting at a 56 percent approval rating back home in last month's Morning Consult survey, 23 points ahead of Trump's approval in Big Sky Country. But the NRSC apparently has decided to go all in with Trump on this one, and are joining in with an on-line ad that "shows a clip of Trump saying that what Tester did to Jackson 'is a disgrace' and a Trump tweet that said Tester should resign. 'Trump is right. It’s time for Jon Tester to go,' the ad says."
Set aside the fact that the allegations Tester made public came from at least 20 current and former military personnel who volunteered the information because they believe Jackson is a trainwreck. Set aside the fact that Tester worked hand-in-hand with Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson, the chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, in releasing the information and that there "an implicit understanding that Tester would be the one to address those allegations with the press as Isakson and other Republicans, while wary of getting into an intra-party feud, were nonetheless eager to send a critical message to the White House about its porous vetting operation."
Set aside the fact that the White House knew there were serious problems with Jackson because "Vice President Mike Pence's physician privately raised alarms within the White House last fall that President Donald Trump's doctor may have violated federal privacy protections for a key patient—Pence's wife, Karen—and intimidated the vice president's doctor during angry confrontations over the episode." Boy, watching Trump's full-throated defense of the guy must make the Pences feel all warm and fuzzy.
Ignoring all that, there's this: "Tester’s office only included claims that it had double-or-triple sourced in its document on Jackson. Several aides confirmed there were other details they were set to try and track down but ultimately did not pursue. At least two aides suggested Tester would feel compelled to re-start research if the attacks by Trump persisted." There's more Jackson horribleness for Tester to work with!
Then there's the part in all of this where Tester is doing all of this in defense of the nation's veterans! He represents a state that has more veterans per capita than any other state, save Maine and Alaska. And where veterans say Tester is "'the best that veterans had ever had' and that he would always 'fight' for them" and Republicans say things like "'Tester is a wonderful man' who had done 'great things, especially for veterans.'" If anything, Trump's attacks are going to rally Montanans around their home-grown senator.