up. the secretary chuck hagel has some thoughts on that subject and he shared them with my cnn colleague jake tapper in washington. hi there, jake, good to see you. what did hagel tell you? we talked about a lot of topics, syria, rescuing the girls in nigeria. the focus of the interview in many ways was of course memorial day. he of course comes to the va story from a very interesting perspective. he is a vietnam veteran, secretary chuck hagel, and, also, he worked for the va during the reagan administration and resigned in protest. so i thought he might have a specific reaction, so i asked him about it. are you appalled when you see these stories? it makes me sick to my stomach. because it is clear responsibility we have as a country, as a people, to take care of these men and women and their families who sacrificed so much. i know systems are imperfect, i
unlike any american. it makes me sick to my stomach because it is clear responsibility that we have as a country, as a people, to take care of these men and women and their families who sacrificed so much. i know systems are imperfect. i get that. but when you ve got what we do know and we need to get the facts, let s see exactly what happened, why it happened, how it happened, then we ve got to fix it. then we have to fix it. sure. i many, everybody is upset with this. carol, interesting perspective from secretary hagel. he was once the deputy administrator for the va during the early years of the reagan administration and that was a time when there was a very controversial administrator that referred to vietnam veterans as cry babies and said agent orange
i want them punished, so that s what we re going to hopefully find out from the ig report, as well as the audits taking place. so he s waiting for the report, but there has been a report, multiple reports in fact. indeed, back as far as 2008, president obama was reportedly informed of case backlogs at the va during his transition to the white house, his team was informed, according to the washington times which received a memo with an information act request. by 2010 the administration was problems with the va staffer was gaming and hiding wait times. not just oh, we knew about the backlog. they knew people were messing with the books. they were warned don t trust the numbers being sent up to you and what did they do? they appear to have trusted the numbers. the goa addressed this noting
what we re going to hopefully find out from the ig report, as well as the audits taking place. so he s waiting for the report, but there has been a report, multiple reports in fact. indeed, back as far as 2008, president obama was reportedly informed of case backlogs at the va during his transition to the white house, his team was informed, according to the washington times which received a memo with an information act request. by 2010 the administration was problems with the va staffer was gaming and hiding wait times. not just oh, we knew about the backlog. they knew people were messing with the books. they were warned don t trust the numbers being sent up to you and what did they do? they appear to have trusted the numbers. the goa addressed this noting
a tipping point. they went to visit with house democrats yesterday and apparently got an earful distressed with the situation as the scandal spreads across the country. it was the lead in the new york times today. jon stewart often a supporter of barack obama was speaking out against it. very interesting interview in the washington post today. a congresswoman from illinois, a veteran herself worked in the va during the beginning of the obama administration lost both of her legs as a helicopter pilot in iraq. she was quoted as saying we could use personal attention from the president. the his silence on this, he had only spoken out publicly once an answer to the question by the foreign trip weeks ago in asia. it was a deafening silence on the commander in chief to speak out on this. so it seems if anything was