GOP senator crushes Trump’s attempt to blame nomination failure on Dems

A leading member of the Republican Party immediately pulled the rug out from under Trump Saturday after he tried to blame his botched nomination for a new VA secretary on Senator Jon Tester (D-MT).

Trump is still reeling from the embarrassing withdrawal of Ronny L. Jackson’s nomination to serve as head of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In early morning Saturday tweets, Trump fumed, “Allegations made by Senator Jon Tester against Admiral/Doctor Ron Jackson are proving false.”

“Tester should resign,” Trump added. “The great people of Montana will not stand for this kind of slander when talking of a great human being.”

Tester’s office received reports of troubling behavior from Jackson, and in the interest of an informed public, authorized the release of what they found. Soon after, Jackson withdrew his nomination and became the 23rd Trump nominee to do so.

Trump’s own party poured cold water on his overheated rhetoric against Tester.

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) is the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. The Washington Post reported that Isakson knew about Tester’s investigation and did not object to his decision to release the information on Jackson.

After Trump’s tirade, Jackson’s office was asked to comment on the demand that Tester resign.

His spokeswoman told CNN’s Jeff Zeleny: “Senator Isakson has a great relationship with Senator Tester. He doesn’t have a problem with how things were handled.”

Trump wants someone to blame for his administration’s latest failure. They still haven’t been able to explain how Jackson, the White House doctor, was qualified to oversee a system responsible for the health care of over 9 million veterans.

The allegations uncovered by Tester’s investigation just compounded the problem, and as usual the Trump White House was unprepared to deal with the fallout of Trump’s decision-making.

Now his own party, which has usually propped up his unpopular decisions and ideas, has pulled the rug out from under him, letting him take the fall for his latest failure.