Ronny Jackson, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Veterans Affairs secretary, announced Thursday he was stepping aside aside amid new allegations of alcohol abuse and faulty prescription practices.

Jackson’s withdrawal comes two days after Trump publicly advised him to bow out and just hours after a report surfaced, citing Senate Democrats’ summary of allegations against him, that he once got intoxicated and crashed a government automobile. That Democratic document also alleges Jackson prescribed himself drugs and asked a physician’s assistant to supply the drugs when he got caught.

In a statement, Jackson denied the allegation.

“Going into this process, I expected tough questions about how to best care for our veterans, but I did not expect to have to dignify baseless and anonymous attacks on my character and integrity,” he said.

But he said he decided to withdraw the nomination because allegations had become a distraction for the president.

“The allegations against me are completely false and fabricated. If they had any merit, I would not have been selected, promoted and entrusted to serve in such a sensitive and important role as physician to three presidents over the past 12 years,” Jackson said.

The nomination was questioned by Democratic senators from the start because Jackson, a Navy rear admiral, has no command or major management experience.

[White House: No Red Flags In Multiple Jackson Background Checks]

Trump acknowledged that point on Tuesday. When asked about other allegations of drinking on the job and creating a hostile office, the president said of Jackson that he would “always stand behind him.”

But he also appeared to give Jackson an out. “If I were him ... the fact is I wouldn’t do it,” Trump said. “What does he need it for? To be abused by a bunch of politicians who ... aren’t thinking about the country?”

Speaking on Fox & Friends, Trump criticized said he advised Jackson to step aside "a day or two ago" because "I saw where this was going."

Senior Senate Democrats like Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York in recent days have panned the White House for what they call a faulty personnel vetting process. They say the allegations against Jackson are among the best examples to support their view.

His bowing out means Trump and his team must find a new VA nominee and will push that Senate vetting and confirmation process back weeks on a legislative calendar that is truncated due to both parties’ need to campaign for November’s midterm elections. Moving another Cabinet nominee through a confirmation process that has plodded during Trump’s tenure — to the White House’s chagrin — will get tougher as the heart of campaign season nears.

[Macron Denounces Nationalistic Wave That Propelled Trump to White House]

The White House tried to mount a defense of Jackson on Monday evening and through Tuesday.

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders used her Tuesday afternoon briefing to note that multiple background checks on Jackson since he became a White House physician turned up no red flags.

And on Tuesday evening, a senior White House official provided a statement defending the nominee and pointing to praise from former President Barack Obama of Jackson that included the 44th president’s recommendation that Jackson be promoted quickly ahead of his peers.

Watch: Trump Stands Behind VA Pick but Says, ‘I Wouldn’t Do It’

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President Donald Trump unleashed his wrath on Montana Sen. Jon Tester Thursday for leading the charge against Ronny Jackson, the president’s pick to head the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Jackson, who has served as the president’s personal physician since George W. Bush was in office and is a rear admiral in the Navy, withdrew his name from consideration for the VA post amid allegations compiled by Democrats on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee that he had been drunk on the job on multiple occasions and had garnered the nickname “Candyman” for his excessive prescribing practices.

“For Jon Tester to start bringing up stuff like ‘Candyman’ and the kind of things he was saying and then say, ‘Well, you know, these are just statements that are made,’ there’s no proof of this. And [Jackson] has a perfect record,” the president said in a phone interview with “Fox & Friends.”

Trump predicted Tester, the ranking Democrat on the VA committee, would face consequences in his re-election campaign in November after the senator’s office released a summary of charges made anonymously against Jackson by 23 of his current and former colleagues.

Watch: Trump Stands Behind VA Pick, But Says ‘I Wouldn’t Do It’

Tester will have a “big price to pay in Montana,” the president said in his Fox interview.

"I love them, and they love me," Trump said of Montana voters.

“I think this is going to cause him a lot of problems in his state," he said of Tester, a Democrat trying to hold on to his seat in a state the president won by 21 points in 2016. “The admiral is the kind of person that [Montanans] like and admire. ... He took a man who was just an incredible man, respected by President [Barack] Obama … President [George W.] Bush."

Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the 2018 Montana Senate race Tilt Democratic.

Montana State Auditor Matt Rosendale is the front-runner in the Republican primary to challenge Tester.

In a statement, Jackson denied the allegations against him.

“Going into this process, I expected tough questions about how to best care for our veterans, but I did not expect to have to dignify baseless and anonymous attacks on my character and integrity,” he said.

But he said he decided to withdraw the nomination because allegations had become a distraction for the president.

“The allegations against me are completely false and fabricated. If they had any merit, I would not have been selected, promoted and entrusted to serve in such a sensitive and important role as physician to three presidents over the past 12 years,” Jackson said.

Tester commended the 23 anonymous sources, many of whom currently work in the military, for stepping forward to address Jackson's alleged shortcomings.

“I want to thank the servicemembers who bravely spoke out over the past week, the Montana senator said in a statement Thursday. “It is my Constitutional responsibility to make sure the veterans of this nation get a strong, thoroughly vetted leader who will fight for them.”

Jackson has returned to his post running the White House Medical Unit, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Thursday.

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