Breaking News Emails
Ronny Jackson’s confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, was postponed because of unspecified concerns about Jackson's background, two sources told NBC News.
A White House official said the scope of the allegations are not yet clear. An aide to a Republican senator on the committee said members are continuing to dig into Jackson's recent history.
The sources said senators on the Veterans Affairs Committee became aware of these concerns only recently — within the past several days — and raised them with the White House.
Breaking News Emails
The Washington Post first reported the postponement.
The timing for the rescheduled confirmation hearing remains unclear. Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., was traveling back to Washington late Monday after giving the eulogy for a friend in Georgia.
Jackson is the White House physician — a position he also held under former President Barack Obama. President Donald Trump announced his choice last month, after firing the department's former secretary, David Shulkin, and after promoting Jackson to rear admiral.
In January, Jackson briefed the media on Trump's health, telling reporters the president has "a lot of energy and a lot of stamina" and was in "excellent" health.
But Jackson has no experience running a large bureaucracy — an issue raised by Democrats and Republicans alike.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called his "lack of VA leadership" experience "concerning," while former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele put it this way on MSNBC:
"Unless he was a mayor of a town somewhere in America we don’t know about, he won’t have a clue what to do."