Sen. Jon Tester said Tuesday that embattled Veterans Affairs nominee Ronny Jackson should do a "self-assessment" on whether he wants to be confirmed to the post because if the various allegations against him are true "it is certainly not going to happen for him."
"My goal here is to give folks a fair shake," the Montana Democrat, a ranking member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, told Anderson Cooper on CNN.
"When we get reports of wrongdoing, it is our job as senators to make sure we get to the bottom of this.
"The information we got on Adm. Jackson is not good."
Jackson's hearing before the committee was postponed indefinitely late Monday amid allegations of unprofessional conduct, alcoholism, and improper dispensing of prescription drugs.
Jackson, 50, the Navy rear admiral who White House chief physician, was nominated last month to head the federal government's largest bureaucracy by President Donald Trump.
Trump himself said Tuesday that Jackson would have to decide himself whether to continue in the confirmation process.
"We'll see what happens," the president told reporters at the White House. "He'll make a decision."
Tester told Cooper: "I told chief of staff [John] Kelly if we had that hearing tomorrow, on Wednesday, there would be questions asked — and we would be very uncomfortable.
"He will be under oath.
"I think it would be wise for the admiral to do a self-assessment," Tester said.
"Ask himself if this is out there, if this stuff is true, it is certainly not going to happen for him."
Tester, 61, who is in his second term, said senators had received reports dubbing Jackson "The Candy Man" because he freely dispensed drugs in the medical department — even on overseas flights.
"The word is that on overseas trips in particular, the admiral would go down the aisle-way of the airplane and say, 'Who wants to go to sleep?'" he said.
"These are called controlled substances for a reason."
When Cooper asked about Jackson's nickname in the West Wing, Tester responded: "It was 'The Candy Man,' because he handed out prescriptive drugs like they were candy."
He added the reports on Jackson were coming from "active military and retired military.
"Not civilians off the street. Military folks that worked in the White House medical."
Jackson, who worked in the Bush 43 and Obama administrations, also was accused of creating a "toxic work environment that included screaming and belittling and talking down to the employees," Tester said.
"As the secretary of the V.A., you are the top of the food chain," he added. "The veterans of this country deserve better than that."
The alcohol-abuse allegations, Tester said, came from his Obama years — primarily from social events.
"The truth is Adm. Jackson was the primary healthcare provider for the president," he said. "If you are drunk and something happens with the president, it would be difficult to treat the president.
"This is totally unacceptable.
"Multiple people told us this was the case."
However, Tester added: "The truth of the matter is, I don't think President [Barack] Obama was aware of this stuff, or he wouldn't have tolerated it."