In an interview on HuffPost Live, Rev. Jesse Jackson opened up about the much-discussed hospitalization of his son, Jesse Jackson Jr., for depression.
The Illinois congressman had taken a leave of absence from Congress in July, initially for undisclosed medical reasons, setting off speculation about what may have been afflicting him. Last week, the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota said that he was being treated there for depression and gastrointestinal issues.
"What we thought to be quote-unquote exhaustion was something much deeper, much broader and it lasted much longer," the elder Jackson said to HuffPost Live's Marc Lamont Hill and Alicia Menendez on Thursday.
"My first [priority] is his health, not his politics," Jackson said.
Hill asked Jackson whether politics, like the Rod Blagojevich scandal, may have been a trigger for his son's depression. Congressman Jackson is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee because of charges that he raised money for Blagojevich's campaign in exchange for the then-governor to name him to the U.S. Senate seat left empty by President Obama.
"That's for the psychiatrist to deal with," Jackson said. "You don't quite know. And so I leave that type of analysis to the doctors."
Jackson added, "I come to this as a father who loves his son very much and wants him to get the best medical care and the time he needs to regain his strength."