that. he resigned yesterday after allegations of a massive cover-up by v.a. hospitals across the country. the v.a. acknowledges 23 veterans died because of delayed care. and up to 40 other deaths are under investigation right now. some facilities, like the one in phoenix, for instance, are accused of keeping separate waits lists to cover up long wait times for sick veterans. on friday president obama said he agrees with shinseki that a shift in leadership is necessary. listen s. he told me this morning, the v.a. needs new leadership to address this. he does not want to be a distraction, because his priority is to fix the problem and make sure our vets are getting the care that they need. that was rick s judgment on behalf of his fellow veterans. shinseki s departure, of course, comes days after the vanchts released ap audit of its health systems and the findings reveal v.a. hospitals across the country were flagged for
people go. the saying around this town, washington, d.c., is those folks who are cabinet officials especially, either die or resign, but rarely. so, what you get though is the president in this current generation saying you know what, it s so politically polarized out there, i don t want to be seen as giving into my critics and folding. oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. here s the sacrifice to the guys, here s the latest person and the interesting dynamic that took place this week was the contrast between what happened to secretary sebelius after the rollout of the obamacare website and what happened with general shinseki at the va. in the case of sebelius, i think the president decided to go through the nominating process was going to be a problem while he tried to fix that problem with the computers urgently, like in the next 30 days. with shinseki, i think he
absolutely. governor, thank you so much. what s coming up on your big show tonight? congressman jeff miller, chairman of the va oversight committee in congress is going to be with us and we ll be talking about this issue. we also are going to be focusing on the update on the justina palatier case, the young girl who s been held hostage for about 16 months. thank you very much, governor, for joining us. now, we would like to hear what you have to say about the widespread abuse at the va. with shinseki gone, will the scandal continue to be a priority for the white house? send me your tweets and we re going to post what you have to say later on the show. we are now hearing that john kerry won t br offering up
problem and it is part political and part managerial. one of the political steps was to deal with the secretary at the v.a. i was with eric shinseki in the morning when he was addressing homeless veterans. he had two standing ovations because on that particular issue, dealing with homeless veterans, he had a lot of support. on the bigger issue of what has been uncovered at the v.a., obviously, became political untenable. so we saw the resignation. that is one step. but so many lawmakers and veterans we have talked to are asking the question about what comes next? how can they root out misconduct inside v.a. hospitals? we could go ahead and fix it. reporter: for president obama, the pressure is still on. we don t have time for distractions. we need to fix the problem. reporter: late friday, the white house released this photo marking the end of eric shinseki s four deck 80s of public service. i want to reiterate, he is a very good man. reporter: the former
he doesn t understand what s going on. you tell me when you want to jump in. thank you. you can t brush over who general eric shin search and rescuey is wounded twice in combat. we know it that is why i didn t jump on the particular bandwagon this is the kind of man under ordinary circumstances in a nonpolitical context you would be honoring and we would all be in awe of his service to his country. now, going to the you know to the wheelchair, i m not exactly sure i don t know. i just told you i can t be here as a surrogate for general shinseki i don t know how much you reached out to him. not at all, the thing was enormous and he had this know about it because these guys are in walter reed and everything else. on his behalf i honor that exactly the kind of activism. associated with the v.a. s problems. he was a bureaucrat. national context of what we have witnessed here.