Rep. Ronny Jackson had 'bloodshot eyes' on a presidential trip to Manila where he had multiple drinks, smoke about the anatomy of female subordinates – and wanted to be filmed in his hotel room dining on a local street food of fertilized bird eggs.
The shocking behavior comes in an inspector general's report of the former presidential physician who President Donald Trump nominated to lead the Veterans' Affairs Department. Instead, Jackson got elected to Congress as a pro-Trump lawmakers from Texas.
Jackson 'made a comment about a female medical subordinate's breasts and buttocks during a presidential trip to Asia in April 2014,' according to the report, which goes on to recount the incident in startling detail.
The Navy rear admiral 'knocked on the same female subordinate's door, while drunk, in the middle of the night and told her 'I need you.'
'I need you to come to my room' the report says he told her.
At the time, he was tasked with providing medical care to President Barack Obama on a week-long trip.
Rep. Ronny Jackson (pictured in January) once said a junior female staffer had 'great t**s', drank alcohol on multiple presidential trips and took sleeping pills that sparked concerns about his ability to administer medical care to the president, according to a bombshell report
Rep. Ronny Jackson pounded on the door of a female staffer on a presidential trip and told her to come to his hotel room, where he wanted her to film him eating a 'balut' a developing bird embryo boiled in its shell. The conduct from a 2014 trip to Asia is spelled out in an inspector general's report
Before arriving in the Philippines, he told a medical subordinate a female subordinate 'had 'great t**s,' and 'what a nice a**,' according to the report.
Jackson told a witness 'that he would 'like to see more of her tattoos.'
Conduct in the report shows Jackson drinking and seeking to party with subordinates, while acting in a way that made them feel uncomfortable.
One witness recalled seeing Jackson drinking in the hotel lobby almost immediately after arriving in Manila.
He then allegedly got in a car with a drink in his hand 'to go out on the town.'
A witness saw him at a restaurant later that night.
'You could smell alcohol. You can see his [RDML Jackson's] flush face, his red nose. It was clear he had been drinking [before meeting at the restaurant],' said the witness.
'So if it was a scale of 1 to 5 like I'd put him at a 3ish. He had a buzz, but he was still functional. He wasn't so drunk he couldn't get in the car or something like that.'
Witnesses 'observed RDML Jackson drink four to six alcoholic beverages in addition to what he already consumed before arriving,' according to the report.
Although Jackson blasted the report in a statement, he did not respond to reporters in the Capitol Wednesday upon its release.
In the report, the watchdog says four witnesses recounted Jackson making inappropriate comments about a more junior female medical staffer while they were on a presidential trip to Manila from April 22 to April 29 2014.
Then the trip took an odd culinary turn. Jackson and two witnesses 'returned to their hotel where RDML Jackson and Manila Witness 1 planned to eat balut in RDML Jackson's room. The report explains that 'balut is a fertilized bird egg that is incubated for a period of 14 to 21 days depending on the local culture, and then boiled or steamed. The contents are eaten directly from the shell.'
A witness 'told us RDML Jackson woke her up during the middle of the night with a 'loud banging on my door.' She said that when she opened her door, she smelled alcohol on RDML Jackson's breath and believed he was 'visibly intoxicated.'
She said he was 'kind of like leaning with one arm against the railing of my doorway, and … he had kind of bloodshot eyes. You could smell the alcohol on his breath, and he leaned into my room and he said, 'I need you.' The aide said it made her very uncomfortable.
Jackson proceeded to cajole two witnesses into his room.
'Dr. Jackson was in [the room] holding this … grocery bag of … balut. He said, 'Take my phone. Take my phone. We need to take pictures. I want to film this. I want to film myself eating these eggs.' And he's screaming. I kind of describe this is like frat boy type behavior,' said one of them.
'The female subordinate told us RDML Jackson started to eat the balut and screamed, 'It f**king stinks. I can feel its f**king feathers.''
At that point, the female subordinate looked at witness one thought, 'I'm done,' she said. 'This is not where I want to be. I don't know what this man [RDML Jackson] was coming to my room for in the first place, but this is clearly not related to my job. I'm going.' She stated that she grabbed her medical bag and, as she was leaving the room, a Secret Service agent told her he thought RDML Jackson was going to wake the President.'
The report also concluded there were at least two incidents where Jackson was drinking alcohol while on duty.
The IG concluded about the incident: 'His intoxicated behavior in the middle of the night, pounding on her hotel room door, screaming, yelling, and overall loud behavior in his hotel room exhibited less than exemplary workplace conduct while on official travel to provide medical care for the President and other members of the travelling party.'
'Additionally, by engaging in this intoxicated conduct during this presidential trip, RDML Jackson failed to show the exemplary conduct that 10 U.S.C. § 8167 requires of Navy officers,' the IG found.
Former colleagues also claim he broke protocol by drinking on at least two separate presidential trips and that he also took Ambien, a strong prescription drug used to treat insomnia that leaves the user drowsy.
The accusations are the culmination of a years-long investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general into Jackson based on interviews with 78 witnesses and a review of White House documents.
The blistering report, obtained in advance of its Wednesday release by CNN, also describes a working culture created by Jackson 'where fear and intimidation were kind of the hallmarks of him, his command, and control of his subordinates.'
It marks the latest time Jackson's professionalism has been called into question after allegations first surfaced in 2018 that he was often drunk on duty and once hammered on the hotel door of a female colleague's room late at night while drunk.
Jackson slammed the report calling the allegations 'false and fabricated' and denied ever drinking alcohol while on duty as the White House doctor.
He released a video calling it a 'political hit job because I have stood firm in my support of president Trump. He blasted media accounts, although the basis was a DOD IG report.
'I have never done anything of the such,' he said.
'I'm proud of the work environment I fostered under three different Presidents of both parties,' Jackson said. 'I take my professional responsibility with respect to prescription drug practices seriously, and I flat out reject any allegation that I consumed alcohol while on duty.'
On a separate trip to Bariloche, Argentina, in 2016, two witnesses claimed Jackson was drinking beer while a third said they latter smelled alcohol on him.
The ex-White House physician, who served under both Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, allegedly made 'sexual and denigrating' comments about a female colleague and her breasts and buttocks while on a trip to Asia back in April 2014. Picturedd with Obama
Under White House protocol, the physician in charge of medical care during a presidential trip is banned from drinking alcohol from 24 hours before the trip, and until two hours after.
Jackson, who once claimed Trump could live to 200 years old, viewed the rules as 'ridiculous', the report says.
The watchdog also concluded that Jackson's use of sleeping medication raised concerns about his ability to provide medical care to the president and other top officials.
The report also recommends that guidance be put forward on the appropriate use of Ambien and similar drugs while working on the White House medical team.
The report also casts an unfavorable light on Jackson's treatment of staff, with 38 of 60 witnesses interviewed about his command climate saying he was unprofessional and treated his subordinates poorly and intimidated them.
Both staff under Obama and Trump described Jackson as having a bad temper and often being seen 'yelling, screaming, cursing, or belittling subordinates', the report says.
'Many of these witnesses described RDML Jackson's behavior with words and phrases such as 'meltdowns,' 'yells' for no reason,' 'rages,' 'tantrums,' 'lashes out,' and 'aggressive,'' the report says.
'These witnesses also described RDML Jackson's leadership style with terms such as 'tyrant,' 'dictator,' 'control freak,' 'hallmarks of fear and intimidation,' 'crappy manager,' and 'not a leader at all.''
Investigators highlighted some of the numerous bad comments about them, including: 'worst command climate I have ever experienced ...enlisted [medics] were scared of him ... wanted to be the most favorite guy to the President ... we were all walking on eggshells ... people below him were afraid, did not want to come to work ... people avoided him at all cost.'
Just 13 staffers gave positive comments about working under him.
The physician 'established a workplace where fear and intimidation were kind of the hallmarks of him, his command, and control of his subordinates,' one person said in the report.
Sources told CNN members of Congress were briefed on the findings Tuesday, ahead of its release Wednesday.
Jackson hit back at the report Tuesday saying it was a political move by the Democrats to 'repeat and rehash untrue attacks on my integrity' because of his vocal support for Trump.
'I'm proud of the work environment I fostered under three different Presidents of both parties; I take my professional responsibility with respect to prescription drug practices seriously; and I flat out reject any allegation that I consumed alcohol while on duty,' Jackson said in a statement to CNN.
Former colleagues also claim he broke protocol by drinking on at least two separate presidential trips and that he also took Ambien, a strong prescription drug used to treat insomnia that leaves the user drowsy. Pictured with Trump
The accusations are the culmination of a years-long investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general into Jackson based on interviews with 78 witnesses and a review of White House documents. Jackson and Eric Trump
'My entire professional life has been defined by duty and service. I've honorably served my country in the U.S. Navy, served patients who trusted me with their care, served three Presidents in the White House, and now I serve the people of Texas' 13th District in Congress.
'I have not and will not ever conduct myself in a way that undermines the sincerity with which I take my oath to my country or my constituents.'
The Pentagon watchdog first launched its investigation into Jackson back in 2018.
It said the investigation was hampered by the Trump administration which insisted interviews with White House Medical Unit staff could only be conducted in the presence of White House counsel.
This had a 'potential chilling effect' on the probe and investigators halted the interviews from October 2018 to August 2019.
Jackson worked as Physician to the President under both Obama and Trump, before he was nominated to serve as the Secretary of Veteran Affairs in 2018 - a nomination he later stood down from amid a flurry of allegations from colleagues about drunken behavior.
Several colleagues came forward saying he was often drunk on duty, was nicknamed the 'candyman' because of the way he handed out drugs and that he once hammered on the hotel door of a female colleague's room late at night while drunk.
In one alleged incident, Jackson reportedly got so drunk at a Secret Service party that he got behind the wheel of a government car and crashed it.
Jackson denied the accusations at the time calling them 'baseless' but the scandal led him to stand down as Trump's nominee as the Secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Jackson (pictured in 2018) slammed the report calling the allegations 'false and fabricated' and denied ever drinking alcohol while on duty as the White House doctor
The report did not substantiate the allegation about the car wreck.
Jackson's medical expertise was also called into question in 2018 when, after carrying out Trump's physical exam, he claimed the president was in 'excellent health' and said if he had a 'healthier diet over the last 20 years, he might live to be 200 years old.'
His positive outlook came despite test results indicating the president had a type of heart disease, worsening cholesterol and coronary calcium levels, and was obese.
Trump was hospitalized with coronavirus in October and was given Ebola drug Remdesivir - that was previously only available to very ill patients - supplementary oxygen and experimental antibody cocktail Regeneron.
Jackson was elected to the House in November and now sits on the House Armed Services subcommittee.
Prior to working as the White House physician Jackson also worked in the White House medical unit under the George W. Bush administration.
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