When we last heard from former White House doctor Ronny Jackson, a once-seemingly respected doctor who dissolved quite quickly into a puddle of pro-Trump paranoia and talking points after resigning from his government post in disgrace, he was describing a harrowing tale of being yelled at super harshly by an American protesting Donald Trump's blatantly illegal use of the White House grounds as host grounds for the Republican National Convention.
Now Jackson, who is running for Congress in Texas because Texas Republicans have a well-proven record of electing damn near anyone to high office, is super-very outraged again, this time over claims that Donald J. Trump had "a series of mini-strokes," to use Donald J. Trump's words, that spurred his still-mysterious trip to Walter Reed Medical Center in late 2019. Not true, says Jackson, because "As the President's doctor, I knew about this trip WEEKS in advance!"
Now, there are a bunch of problems with this, but the biggest is that the trip in question took place on November 16, 2019. Ronny Jackson left the White House in March 2018—a year and a half before the medical visit he says he "knew" of. Either Ronny Jackson is the world's worst liar or ... well, given the rest of the video and its frothy claims I'm not sure what option B might be.
Here is how Jackson, the once-White-House physician Trump nominated to run the entire Department of Veterans Affairs, talks these days: "I just turned the TV off after watching the latest episode of fake news, from the communications branch of the Democrat party, also known as CNN."
Yeah, this is how he talks now. Somebody's been writing themselves prescriptions again.
"I won't get into the president's health, I'm no longer his physician, but I will comment, and tell you I was consulted regarding this trip weeks in advance."
Jackson’s dueling descriptions of whether he is or isn’t speaking as Trump’s doctor aside, how does that ... how does that work, exactly? Jackson had been away from the office and retired for a year and a half, but Trump's current doctors felt the need to "consult" with him about the scheduling of a routine medical check-up, to be held on a weekend afternoon and scheduled in strict secrecy because reasons? I realize there's some professional coordination that may be necessary in attempting to maintain the vital national fiction that Donald Trump is forever a lot taller and a lot lighter than he looks in absolutely every public appearance, but Jackson’s newest claim seems a bit much.
Buddy, whatcha being "consulted" on in order to plan a routine but super-secret visit to schedule "half" of a physical a year and a half after you've had the White House medicine cabinet's keys taken away? And how does this square with then-White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham's original claims about the visit—that Donald was simply bored and had free time, so decided to pop in for a partial weekend physical, as one does?
How is it that Ronny Jackson says he had "weeks" of notice, but the Walter Reed Medical Center staff itself wasn't informed until he actually showed up at the building?
See, this is the whole problem with the Dear Leader response brigade. Nobody in America really cares about the Walter Reed visit, not as anything more than passing curiosity. At most, it’s used as something to tease Trump with, because he so readily rises to the bait. But everyone around Trump manages to make the story weirder every time they talk about it. Jackson says he's consulted on the routine scheduling of unannounced weekend half-physicals. Mike Pence says he just can't remember if he was informed that he might have to temporarily be president of the United States, if Trump's routine weekend physical required general anesthesia.
Every addition to the story by Trump's closest defenders make it look even weirder and less plausible than it did before. If you're trying to tamp down on speculation on Dear Leader's spectacular, nothing-to-see-here, definitely nothing brain-involved heath, adding weird new embellishments every time is, ahem, counterproductive.
Whatever the case is, Jackson as hyperpartisan House Republican candidate sounds like a real peach, albeit one that's been left out in the shed too long.
"So why is the left suddenly talking about this? The reason is, they're trying to defer, and distract, from the obvious mental and physical and cognitive issues with former vice president Joe Biden, who is now their nominee for president."
This fella was passing himself off as a doctor, just a sentence or two ago. Now he's saying Donald Trump is the picture of Aryan perfection and the guy who doesn't have trouble navigating gradual slopes and who doesn't alter government weather maps with felt-tipped pens and try to pass them off as official forecasts has "obvious" mental and physical issues.
"If we don't elect President Trump as our president, for this next election, we are in trouble. We are in bad trouble in this country. This country is headed the wrong direction and the ONLY thing that's gonna salvage this country is to give President Trump another four years."
Do you NOT KNOW who the current president is? How does this work? How does any of this work? "This country is headed in the wrong direction, we're completely screwed, everything is going completely to shit, so vote for the guy who oversaw it all or we're all gonna DIEEEEEEEE."
All right, so I think we understand how what makes former White House doctor Ronny Jackson tick. Trump's Walter Reed visit was in fact a surgical operation to attach Mr. Jackson's lips directly to Donald Trump's behind, where they shall remain forevermore, unless Trump falls out of favor in which case Jackson will write a new book declaring that he never really liked that guy.
What a piece of work. Both of them. All of them. The whole lot.
