people know the facts and exactly what s going on. well, there is two tracks right now. there is what the v.a. would like to do to a bit of self-reform. and then there is congress. congress is moving ahead with legislation. the question is: will they be able to get together and move it across the finish line because we have a divided congress. it would make pretty serious reforms. most importantly it would allow some private advertised care. they are trying to reach out to 90,000 veterans to try to get care for them. 90,000. there is almost no way that these people can be seen quickly without the help of outside medical care. that s probably the most important step here. and then secondary to that is the ability of the v.a. secretary to reorganize the administration so he gets rid of people who are incompetent. if you looked at today s ig report, they talked about recommendations getting rid of people faster. the red tape is all still there. there is nothing in the rule book there th
mix there too. he they re all over the place from a communications standpoint. that s right. very troubling, but thank you for that information from inside the briefing and hopefully others like yourself will continue to press for answers because, for sure, the american people want them and deserve them. congressman, thank you for your time. thank you, thanks for having me. all right. straight ahead. cuffed until he was bleeding and denied even a glass of water. a u.s. marine jailed in mexico revealed what he has never said before. greta s exclusive new interview with sergeant tahmooressi is next. plus, we are following breaking news tonight. house lawmakers are starting that late night hearing on the v.a. scandal and a nationwide audit revealing just how bad that scandal really is. a live report coming up. stay with us. peace of mind is important when you re running a business. century link provides reliable it services like multi-layered security solution to keep your informa
just released audit. for the latest doug mckelway is live in washington. doug, can you believe these numbers? yeah, they are really hard to believe. as this house veterans affairs committee gets underway tonight in this rare nighttime hearing on data manipulation. the committee is armed with new facts that came out just today it an audit conducted by the v.a. that paints a picture of dysfunctional rife with deceit. audit found 100,000 veterans experiencing long wait times. a 7,000 are still waiting for first doctor s appointment. 13% of schedulers were instructed to book appointments on dates different than those requested by the patient. white house deputy press secretary said the did it will help the administration
determine the scope of this problem. john boehner said the long waits are quote a national disgrace. fod 11 separate democrats and 10 republicans signed a letter to the justice department urging it to commence an investigation of criminal wrongdoing at the v.a. they wrote, quoting now: the growing scale of apparent criminal wrongdoing is fast outpacing the criminal investigative resources of the inspector general. both houses of congress are working on bills that will provide vets a choice card to seek private care in the event of long waits. it would also allow for the the firing of senior v.a. executives who perform poorly, but the senior executives trade group that represents high level federal workers. fears that that could potentially open the door to political firings. part of that all to be worked out tonight in this hearing. back to you, kimberly? doug, thank you so much for that update. you will be staying on that story for tonight. back to our political panel to discuss all
stories. it s staggering. astonishing, and in my opinion criminal what s going on here. it really is an indictment against bureaucracy. these are unacceptable and unfathomable numbers. well, it certainly seems to rise far beyond anything that can be simply handled by internal self-policing here. that s why you have had republicans calling for weeks, if not months for eric holder to get involved and actually open up an investigation to see who here has broken the law and committed fraud. we know that the v.a. has already admitted that 23 deaths had been linked to delays. the v.a. has already admitted that. we don t need to wait for another internal review to be conducted and now that a 7,000 people waiting longer than three months. how many of those people could be in critical, very serious conditions. it is a bad situation all around. susan, this audit released today showing a 7,000. when i heard that number today, i said, really? in this country? how do they get around this? what