the office of government ethics who resigned his position in president trump s first year. walter, good to see you. welcome to the program. you called this a sinister shadow government. explain that. well, this is literally the worst-case scenario of a smoke-filled room full of rich guys making decisions and pulling strings like puppet masters. and the worst part is, if it wasn t for isaac s work here, we wouldn t even know about it. and this is precisely the thing that there are laws to prevent. there s a federal advisory committee act that requires you to follow very strict procedures for transparency when you re seeking information from outside groups and the antithesis of following that law is having a smoke-filled room with some cabal of rich guys sitting around a resort in florida making decisions that are going to affect veterans and essentially running a 370,000-person agency.
world. last year they made more than 370,000 luxury suvs, employing 10,000 people. pumping billions in to the state s economy. is it safe to say how well bmw does is how well spartanburg county does? you might could say that because there is a lot of industry in spartanburg county that are directly connected to bmw. growth, jobs, and i know that that s brought in a lot of families in to the area. brings money in to the area. reporter: spartan duburg s a deep red, meaning in 2016 the county voted 63% for donald trump. but president trump has threatened to place tariffs on imported bmw vehicles and parts. that could make bmws made and sold in america a lot more expensive. the company is already feeling the impact of trump s trade war with china. over 80,000 spartanburg-made bmw suvs are sold in china every
reporter: it may not look like it, but spartanburg is home to the largest bmw plant in the world. last year, they made more than 370,000 luxury suvs employing 10,000 people. pumping billions into the state s economy. is it safe to say how well bmw does is how well spartanburg county does? you might could say that, because there is a lot of industry directly connected to bmw. growth, jobs, and i know that that s brought in a lot of families into the area. it brings money into the area. reporter: spartanburg s also deep red. meaning in 2016, the county voted 63% for donald trump. but president trump has threatened to place tariffs on imported bmw vehicles and parts. that could make bmws made and sold in america a lot more expensive. the company is already feeling the impact of trump s trade war
government to pay for to make sure vets are seen in a timely fashion. wilkie pushed back on repeated suggestions that he and the president are intend on privatizing the va. we don t turn veterans down. a private facility might. reporter: the first test will be to deal with the low morale of the 370,000 people who work for the va and address the brain drain exacerbated by years of turmoil. the va is short 33,000 doctors and nurses. shannon: thank you. tonight, time for a midnight hero, a pair of delta passengers hail heroes after helping to restrain a violent passenger who was punching overhead lights and windows and threatening to, quote, take the plane down. former corrections officer and another man with the coast guard were able to handcuff the man to
firing those who have given the v.a. a bad name isn t always easy. for instance, the disgraced director of the washington v.a. had to be rehired after being fired, even though under his watch, it was found that inventories were so mismanaged that doctors would have to run out med procedure and borrow them from neighboring hospitals after patients were already under anesthesia. do you agree with that decision? what are you going to do about that? the laws have changed since that time and the laws and i ll you the authority to override most of what i would consider to be the normal bureaucratic protections for those in those situations. wilkie s biggest problem off the bat, more than 20,000 civil servants have left the v.a. since the start of the trap at administration. top jobs remain empty after 15 months. the v.a. is short 33,000 doctors and nurses. in an organization that is 370,000 strong, that represents about 9% of the force.