smoke? nah, i m good. [ male announcer ] celebrate every win with nicoderm cq, the unique patch with time release smartcontrol technology that helps prevent the urge to smoke all day long. help prevent your cravings with nicoderm cq. president obama is cleaning house at the white house. on friday morning, president obama accepted the resignation of secretary eric shinseki and later in the day, dropped a bombshell when he appeared in the briefing room to announce press secretary jay carney is stepping down. jay is one of my closest friends and eight great press secretary and a great advisor and has good judgment and temperament and he s got a good heart.
the president allowed veterans to make a claim for agent orange. that s a veteran saying i need into the system. this was a wait time issue. this was veterans trying to go to the hospital who weren t getting in quick enough to see their doctors. so there s a lot of reasons that happened. iraq and afghanistan veteran cans go to the v.a. for primary care for the first five years they return home. there was a million veterans in this country that were uninsured that chose the v.a. as their primary provider under the affordable care act. so a lot of these issues, iraq and afghanistan, veterans coming home, a lot of this not only caused a backlog in claims process but wait times. but the issues have been decades in the making. it s ironic that general shinseki who was an opponent of the iraq war is dealing with this. the house bill passed last week is a joke. this isn t about one or two bad apples. this is a systemic issue. senator mcconnell blocked a $24 billion package two months ago
between the departures of shinseki and carney who told the president of his plans in april but it s clear the president wanted to get both movesf the way particularly in the case of shinseki. one stop at normandy for the 70th anniversary. a lot of veterans turning out for the big day and the bottom line is the president wanted to get shinseki out before going there, andrea. at least hi didn t say he read about the resignations in the newspaper. ed, thank you. good to see you. my co-host of the five will be here later with reaction to his resignation but my next guest have family members neglected by the phoenix va where the scandal exploded and join me now with reaction to today s breaking news. sally barns, breen and debra alan thank you both for being here. thank you. sally, i have read your story, both of your stories, sally and debra. they brought me to tears.
distraction because his priority is to fix the problem and make sure our vets are getting the care that they need. my assessment was unfortunately that he was right. and here is general shinseki today just a short while before the announcement. i was too trusting of some and i accept it as accurate reports that i now know have been misleading with regard to patient wait times. i will not defend it because it s indefensible. i apologize as a senior leader of the department of veterans affairs. sloan gibson was named as the acting secretary of the v.a. the political problem has now been fixed, but the issue remains that the vets have been betrayed by this administration. you remember president obama promised he would cutting the red tape. we re fulfilling our promise. cutting the red tape and delay.
i was too trusting of some and i have accepted as accurate reports that i now know to have been misleading. eric shinseki offered me his resignation. with regret, i accept it. that was president obama announcing the inevitable hours after now former secretary of veterans affairs eric shinseki took full responsibility for the vast scandal at the v.a. as the scandal and speculation about the future continued to grow, so did calls from both sides of the aisle for him to step down. with the distraction of eric shinseki, a hero who served in our military, wounded during his time in vietnam, no longer around. what now? just as the president announced his resignation, the v.a. quietly released results of another audit that found