into resignation and then into finger-pointing – at King, the VA bureaucracy, the market itself. Daniels says the deal went south because King and Stewart faced a challenging market, trying to move cash too fast, while the federal government doesn’t provide enough guidance for vendors. “This situation with Troy King and Rob Stewart is you really have two good guys who had a lot of miscommunications,” he said. “One wasn’t communicating enough. One had his back against the wall.” “This situation with Troy King and Rob Stewart is you really have two good guys who had a lot of miscommunications,” he said. “One wasn’t communicating enough. One had his back against the wall.” “Robert Stewart is a good guy,” Daniels said. “He’s a very honest guy.” The group ordered tacos for what Stewart said was the company’s “last supper.” “I’ve done everything I can do,” Stewart said. “I called in every favor I had.” A FEDERAL INVESTIGATION The next morning, as the dejected party boarded for a return flight, the pilot asked: “Anything I can get you before we take off?”
“Six million N95 masks,” Stewart quipped. We landed in Georgia an hour and a half later, Stewart snapped photos with his family in front of the jet, and the two of us took off for Dulles. The CEO was in the same gray suit as the previous day, now wrinkled. With his friends and family gone, his joviality had given way to exhaustion and the realization that this article probably wasn’t going to be one he liked. The optics of the private jet, he said, would not be good. “The only reason I took the plane was because of my parents,” he said. “They’re old and I didn’t want them to get sick, and I wanted them to see this. I wanted to say thank you.” Stewart said he had severed ties with King the previous night. Stewart said he and his team couldn’t track down any Juanita Ramos, the connection King purported to have to Pence’s task force. And King hadn’t sent over the invoice he needed for the VA. Citing ProPublica’s reporting, 22 Senate Democrats have asked the White House to explain its management of federal employee safety. “I absolutely do believe he made her up,” Stewart said as of this writing. King did not respond to a question about Ramos. “He’s the one that made up this figment Ramos lady,” Stewart added. “I didn’t make that up.” “After several conversations over the weekend, Mr. Stewart informed us that he had secured these masks through another source and that
82
May 2020
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker