ANALYSIS – In a blatant attempt to sideline former White House physician, and Republican congressman, Ronny Jackson for his repeated calls to have Joe Biden take a cognitive exam, Democrats have launched a smear campaign against him regarding his Navy rank.
While Jackson, who served both President Barack Obama and Donald Trump, retired as a one-star Rear Admiral in 2019, after leaving the Trump White House, he was quietly demoted to Navy Captain nearly two years ago, in July 2022.
He had been initially promoted to Rear Admiral by Obama. And Trump was planning to promote Jackson to two-star rank. Jackson was in the unique position of being favored by both Obama and Trump.
According to Navy regulations, a retired service member can be demoted if he was under investigation while still on active duty.
But since that initial quiet demotion didn't get any media attention at the time, Democrat partisans have now repackaged and rehashed the smear by accusing Jackson of “lying” about his rank when he has referred to himself as a retired Rear Admiral. (RELATED: Mass Shooter Suffered Profound Damage In US Army)
The post-retirement demotion allegedly came as a result of a “damning” Inspector General (IG) report, which was likely more a hit job by partisan hacks at the Pentagon because Jackson became a GOP Congressman from Texas and has mercilessly bashed Biden's declining mental and physical health.
A Navy official confirmed to The Post that the service took unspecified action against Jackson after the 2021 inspector general report revealed that the dad of three “made sexual and denigrating statements” about females on staff and berated subordinates during his White House tenure.
“The substantiated allegations in the DoDIG investigation of Rear Adm (lower half) Ronny Jackson are not in keeping with the standards the Navy requires of its leaders and, as such, the Secretary of the Navy took administrative action in July 2022,” a Navy spokesperson said.
In today's uber woke and politically correct Pentagon, who knows what constitutes “sexual and denigrating statements.” (Not using preferred pronouns? Saying “ladies”?) But I would be interested to know what he actually said before accepting the IG report's conclusions.
Then, there is the accusation that Jackson berated subordinates. Again, in today's hypersensitive Pentagon what constitutes “berating” subordinates. And is that a serious enough “offense” to justify a demotion from Rear Admiral?
The most serious-sounding accusation is that Jackson engaged in”‘inappropriate drinking” while at the White House. But, considering that half of D.C.'s power brokers are functioning alcoholics, I'm not sure I would give much credence to this either.
One of the silliest claims against him is that he took Ambien (a sleep aid) to help him sleep while serving as Trump's physician. Seriously? (RELATED: Terrorists Take These Pills Become Deliberately Cruel)
And then there Jackson's supposed lying about his rank. Well, as far as I'm concerned, he earned his star and can honestly say he was a Rear Admiral. He was demoted retroactively. But that doesn't change the fact that he held the rank.
If more information is released, we may learn that some of these allegations have merit. But in the meantime, I would definitely give Jackson the benefit of the doubt.
In his 2022 memoir “Holding The Line,” Jackson dismissed the IG report as a political witch hunt: “If I had retired and not gotten into politics, this investigation would have never gone anywhere,” he wrote.
“This was happening because I am a perceived threat [to] the Biden administration and because a few political appointees in the Department of Defense want to make a name for themselves,” he added.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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