Susan Wright on the Right
So let’s continue our discussion of the “shadow rulers.” That would be the clique of wealthy, unappointed, inexperienced Trump pals from the Mar-a-Lago set, given behind-the-curtain ruling status over the Department of Veterans Affairs, Ike Perlmutter, Bruce Moskowitz, and Marc Sherman.
These three men, because of their relationship with the president, have been giving input into everything from policy to who gets hired by the VA. They are consulted on the major issues, and even feel free to call up the administration and push for policies that will benefit them, personally.
This isn’t draining the swamp. This is the absolute worst of possible swampy behavior.
Speaking of benefiting them, personally, one such uncomfortable incident occurred after a series of calls between Perlmutter, the chairman of Marvel Entertainment, and executives with Johnson and Johnson.
Perlmutter sought their cooperation in developing a campaign to bring awareness to veteran suicide.
It sounds good, right? I mean, we have a problem with veterans and mental health in this nation. We definitely need people on board who care enough to really dig into the problem. Our veterans deserve no less than our best on this.
They planned to promote the campaign by ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange around the time of Veterans Day.
The event also turned into a promotional opportunity for Perlmutter’s company. Executives from Marvel and its parent company, Disney, joined Johnson & Johnson as sponsors of the Veterans Day event at the stock exchange. Shulkin rang the closing bell standing near a preening and flexing Captain America, with Spider-Man waving from the trading pit, and Marvel swag was distributed to some of the attendees. “Generally the VA secretary or defense secretary don’t shill for companies,” the leader of a veterans advocacy group said.
Um…
I mean, let’s be clear. I’m a complete geek for all things Marvel, but was this appropriate?
Rhetorical question.
It was not.
So was it just Perlmutter finding a way to work his own interests into his unofficial position as VA boss?
Well, Moskowitz had his own thing going on.
Perlmutter also facilitated a series of conference calls with senior executives from Apple. VA officials were excited about working with the company, but it wasn’t immediately obvious what they had to collaborate on.
As it turned out, Moskowitz wanted Apple and the VA to develop an app for veterans to find nearby medical services. Who did he bring in to advise them on the project? His son, Aaron, who had built a similar app. The proposal made Apple and VA officials uncomfortable, according to two people familiar with the matter, but Moskowitz’s clout kept it alive for months. The VA finally killed the project because Moskowitz was the only one who supported it.
Moskowitz, in the joint statement, defended his son’s involvement, calling him a “technical expert” who participated in a single phone call alongside others. “Any development efforts, had they occurred, would not have involved Aaron or any of us. There was no product of Dr. Moskowitz’s or Aaron’s that was promoted or recommended in any way during the call,” the trio said. “Again, none of us, including Aaron, stood to receive any financial benefit from the matters discussed during the conversation — and any claims to the contrary are factually incorrect.”
That would be a reasonable claim, if immediate financial benefit was the only problem. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that having this on a resume could greatly sweeten any future deals.
Moskowitz also set up the Biomedical Research and Education Foundation. The purpose was to encourage medical institutions to do a better job of tracking medical devices used by their patients, pointing out what he saw as a dangerous oversight. The foundation even built a registry for collecting data from doctors and their patients.
This was also a good idea, but then there comes that little twist.
Moskowitz chaired the board, and Perlmutter’s wife was also a member. Moskowitz’s son earned $60,000 a year as the executive director, according to tax disclosures.
Of course.
Moskowitz pushed the VA to pick up where he left off. He joined officials on weekly 7:30 a.m. conference calls in which officials discussed organizing a summit of experts on device registries and making a public commitment to creating one at the VA. In an email to Shulkin, the VA official in charge of the project referred to it as the “Bruce Moskowitz efforts.”
There were also clashes between VA Secretary Shulkin and the Mar-a-Lago trio over basic medical care of veterans.
Shulkin balked at the proposal pushed by President Trump on the campaign trail of letting vets use any doctor they choose for private care, whether in or out of the VA system. The secretary felt it would result in poorer care and greater expense.
In September 2017, the Mar-a-Lago Crowd weighed in on the side of expanding the use of the private sector. “We think that some of the VA hospitals are delivering some specialty healthcare when they shouldn’t and when referrals to private facilities or other VA centers would be a better option,” Perlmutter wrote in an email to Shulkin and other officials. “Our solution is to make use of academic medical centers and medical trade groups, both of whom have offered to send review teams to the VA hospitals to help this effort.”
In other words, they proposed inviting private health care executives to tell the VA which services they should outsource to private providers like themselves. It was precisely the kind of fox-in-the-henhouse scenario that the VA’s defenders had warned against for years. Shulkin delicately tried to hold off Perlmutter’s proposal, saying the VA was already developing an in-house method of comparing its services to the private sector.
And yes, the same entitled trio that recommended Shulkin to the VA secretary position began to grow sour on him.
Shulkin found himself hobbled by an ethics scandal in 2018, and there were several deals he wanted to close before what he feared would be his inevitable ouster.
In February, he flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Perlmutter, Moskowitz, and Sherman to tidy up details on a deal with a company called Cerner, a designer of electronic record-keeping software.
On that trip, he was accompanied by Peter O’Rourke, a former Trump campaign aide who was serving as his chief of staff, after the ethics scandal had driven away his top aide.
O’Rourke was observant enough to know who was holding the reigns.
O’Rourke took the opportunity to ally himself with the Mar-a-Lago Crowd. “It was an honor to meet you all yesterday,” he wrote in a follow-up email. “I want to ensure that you have my VA and personal contact information.” He then provided his personal cell phone number and email address. (Using personal email to conduct government business can flout federal records laws, as President Trump and his allies relentlessly noted in their attacks on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.) “Thank you for your support of the President, the VA, and me,” O’Rourke wrote. (O’Rourke didn’t answer requests for comment.)
Perlmutter welcomed the overture. “I feel confident that you will be a terrific asset moving forward to get things accomplished,” he replied.
Lordy.
When Shulkin’s departure became imminent, Perlmutter, Moskowitz, and Sherman were included in the plans, alerted in a memo from White House aide Jake Leinenkugel, beforehand.
But it wasn’t just Shulkin — all the officials that the Leinenkugel memo singled out for removal are now gone, replaced with allies of Perlmutter, Sherman and Moskowitz. The memo suggested that Sandoval take charge of the Office of Information and Technology, overseeing the implementation of the Cerner contract; he got the job in April. The memo proposed removing Deputy Secretary Tom Bowman; he left in June, and the post hasn’t been filled. The memo floated Richard Stone for under secretary for health; he got the job on an acting basis in July. Leinenkugel himself took charge of a commission on mental health (the same topic Moskowitz had emailed O’Rourke about). O’Rourke, having hit it off with the Mar-a-Lago Crowd, became acting secretary in May.
After initially nominating White House doctor Ronny Jackson to lead the VA (a move that fell apart after allegations of misconduct emerged), Trump put Pentagon official Robert Wilkie in on a temporary basis.
Temporary, because it was necessary for Wilkie to go through the vetting process by the Mar-a-Lago trio.
In fact, on his first day, Wilkie was greeted in his office by Marc Sherman, according to visitor’s records.
Afterwards, he made the necessary trip to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring[s].
The Mar-a-Lago Crowd gave Wilkie and O’Rourke rave reviews. “I am sure that I speak for the group, that both you and Peter astounded all of us on how quickly and accurately you assessed the key problems and more importantly the solutions that will be needed to finally move the VA in the right direction,” Moskowitz told Wilkie in a follow-up email.
Perlmutter was similarly thrilled with the new regime. “For the first time in 1½ years we feel everyone is on the same page. Everybody ‘gets it,’” he said in an email. “Again, please know we are available and want to help any possible way 24/7.”
Wilkie replied that the honor was his. “Thank you again for taking time to see me,” he wrote.
Everybody is on board because you were allowed to install all your own people.
Look, I’m all for citizens being totally onboard and involved in what goes on in our government. That’s how it’s supposed to work.
That being said, we have to consider where the line is. When does involvement and concern lapse into cronyism?
Wilkie, who was sworn in on July 30, now faces a choice between asserting his own authority over the VA or taking cues from the Mar-a-Lago Crowd. Wilkie reportedly wants to sideline O’Rourke and Sandoval and restock the agency leadership with his own people. But people familiar with the situation said the Mar-a-Lago Crowd’s allies are pushing back on Wilkie’s efforts to rein them in. As his predecessor learned the hard way, anyone who crosses the Mar-a-Lago Crowd does so at his own risk.
And THAT is cronyism.
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