U.S. President Donald Trump is going toe to toe with Montana Senior Senator Jon Tester after Admiral Ronny Jackson withdrew from being the nominee to head up the VA. Here’s how Trump sounded during an interview with Fox News.

“These are all false accusations,” President Trump said. “They are trying to destroy a man. By the way, I did say welcome to Washington, welcome to the swamp, welcome to the world of politics, but for Jon Tester to start bringing up stuff like 'Candy Man' and the kind of things he was saying and then say well you know these are just statements, there is no proof of this and he has a perfect record.”

The “Candy Man” man reference is something Jon Tester claimed during an interview on CNN.

“The word is that on overseas trips in particular, the admiral would go down the aisle way of the airplane and say, ‘alright who wants to go to sleep?’,” Tester said. “Those are the reports we got from the 20 some people who got a hold of us and said we have a problem, this doctor has a problem because he hands out prescriptions like candy. In fact, they call him the 'Candy Man' in the White House.”

Tester also went public with the accusation that Jackson was drunk at times, while on duty during his service to former president Barack Obama.

“It is the truth that Admiral Jackson was the primary healthcare provider for the president,” Tester said. “If you are drunk and something happens with the president, it is very difficult to treat the president in the way that needs to be done. This is totally unacceptable under this environment and multiple people told us this was the case on several different trips.”

Trump has hammered back at Senator Tester claiming that this will impact Tester’s reelection bid.

“I watched Jon Tester of Montana, a state that I won by like over 20 points, they love me and I love them and I want to tell you that I think this is going to cause him a lot of problems in his state,” President Trump said.

The row could end up luring Trump to Montana to campaign against Tester and rally his base, but it is extremely rare for sitting presidents to visit. Such an occurrence is possible though, as Republicans are hoping to flip Tester’s seat in the 2018 election.

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