Resignation intensify. At a speech for coalition of Homeless Veterans, the secretary vowed to enact sweeping changes to counter the growing scandal over wait times in va facilities. They will eliminate performance bonuses in 2014 for Senior Executives and removing patient wait times from va employee performance reviews. The secretary said he was mislead about the scope of the problems. I was too trusting of some and i accept it as accurate reports that i now know to have been misleading with regard to patient wait times. I cant explain the lack of integrity among some of the leaders of our health care facilities. This is something i rarely encounter during 38 years in uniform. And so i will not defend it because it is indefensible. But i can take responsibility for it. And i do. The secretary and the president as we said are meeting right now in the oval office in that speech we just showed you this morning. The va secretary laid out his plans to fix what he called systemic problems in the va talking about the present tense as if hes still running the agency and plans to. In the days ahead, we can do this. This doesnt sound like a man ready to resign. Yesterday president obama said he was gearing up for a heart to heart with his embattled va secretary. Ill have a serious conversation with him about whether he thinks that he is prepared and has the capacity to take on the job of fixing it. I dont want any veteran to not be given the kind of services that they deserve. Joining me now to talk about this, senior White House Correspondent jim accosta and drew griffin who broke this scandal on cnn. Jim, this sounds like an unprecedented situation to me. Secretary shinseki says im not going to resign. Hes saying im not going to resign. You have to fire me. The white house seems to be saying were not going to fire you. You need to quit. So how does this issue get resolved here, jim . Well, i think thats definitely one scenario that we could see right now. There are a lot of different moving parts. One of them is Eric Shinseki. You heard that speech earlier this morning before that group for homeless vets. I was struck by a couple things. You laid out a few of them. The secretary of Veterans Affairs saying to that crowd that hes been lied to by top officials inside the va. Hes not seen the kind of coverups that have been going on at va facilities in his entire 38year military career. Those are extraordinary things to hear from a secretary of Foreign Affairs. Keep in mind hes saying these things even though there have been and drew griffin can back this up, ig reports, Inspector General reports going back some ten years saying wait times have been an issue and that whether or not the coverup of wait times has been going on for all of these years and that wait times may not be reliable data for officials at Veterans Affairs. Theres a question as to whether or not shinseki has been in touch with whats going on inside his own department. I assume thats a topic of conversation hes having with the president right now. One other thing i was struck by in that interview live kwith kelly and mike and the president referring to shinseki as an american hero. He was trying to show the general that served in vietnam, wounded in vietnam, the due respect that should come to a general in a situation like this. Firing a general is not the same as firing secretary of Veterans Affairs. Im being told by my photographer, peter, right now that the president is going to make a statement in the Briefing Room. What time do we think thats going to be . 11 15. Things moving quickly at the white house. One thing we should point out, shinseki is gone, is that right . Is that confirmed . We can now report to you that secretary of Veterans AffairsEric Shinseki has resigned has left the white house. Excuse me. Were live on the air and being given information as were moving along here. I apologize. Were going to have a briefing from the president in just a few moments. One thing that we did hear in the last 24 hours is this white house not expressing confidence in Eric Shinseki and thats a Major Development in all of this in terms of the fate of Eric Shinseki. What we do know is president obama will be making a statement in the White House Briefing room ten minutes from now presumably that is to make some kind of announcement about what he and Eric Shinseki discussed or decided and really the only issue at play here is whether the secretary stays or go. We will bring you word of what that decision is the minute we get it. Jim, well let you work your sources on that as we await for the president in ten minutes. Drew, let me go to you. While we await word over whether secretary shinseki is staying or leaving, i want to talk about these changes that he proposed for the va. They are not insignificant. Major cutbacks and layoffs of people in phoenix who are responsible for issues at that hospital. No bonuses for senior level people in the va in general. In changing the evaluation process inside the va. And why, john . Many people believe the root cause of this was that in trying to reach these ridiculously unrealistic goals of making appointments and seeing every veteran within 14 days, that performance goal became the marker instead of actually attaining that. What i mean is just on paper they were trying to meet these goals and the only way they could do that was to literally get rid of some of the data that shows that these veterans have been and continue to wait for care. So hes taking away that bonus as a measure of the metrics in which these administrators get these bonuses and removing bonuses all together and leading to firing of the executive staff in phoenix. This scandal is systemic. Are you going to fire every single administrator that has lied to you, general shinseki . It is very, very big, john. Thats why i think there could be a very, very big change. I want to bring people breaking news here. A Major Development at the white house right now. The secretary of Veterans AffairsEric Shinseki left the white house moments ago after meeting in the oval office with president obama. We learned just minutes ago that the president will make a statement in the Briefing Room. Youre seeing a live picture of that Briefing Room right now at 11 15 the president will step before the microphone and tell the American People what he decided to do with the department of Veterans Affairs. Will secretary shinseki stay on the job or will he go . Drew griffin, i want to talk about more of the reforms that secretary shinseki was discussing. He said we have done big things here before so we can do big things Going Forward. Based on your reporting, your knowledge of this agency, does hes have the faith of the people there anymore . Well, by his own admission, hes been lied so. Hes not been getting the full facts on this. I question why he hasnt himself been able to find out those facts. Lets put it at face value. If hes saying the core team surrounding him as lied to him and hes saying that we have a systemic scandal at all of the big major hospitals that the va runs throughout the country, then what kind of leadership role is that . He has no clue whats going on underneath him. He did go to the coalition for Homeless Veterans this morning. Particularly because that is an issue that is near and dear to his heart and hes done a great job with Homeless Veterans. Its a bigger part to take one part of the va and doing well while the other part wallows in a terrible scandal. Decades of service to this country in the military and last five years at the department of Veterans Affairs. Within the next few minutes well learn whether he will stay as secretary of this department amid all of the scandals that cnn has been reporting on and drew griffin has been reporting on for months. That announcement coming a few minutes from now. I will throw it to my friend, wolf blitzer, who is in washington to cover this big day at the white house. Wolf . John, thanks very much. The president of the United States getting ready to walk into the Briefing Room and make a major statement. This follows his meeting that has just wrapped up with the secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki. A meeting in which shinseki presented at least his initial account of what went wrong and clearly a lot has gone wrong over the last several months and years at the department of Veterans Affairs. We dont know if the secretary will come into this Briefing Room or president by himself. I suspect it will be the president by himself. Well see what he has to say and whether he stands with shinseki or announces that shinseki has decided to submit his resignation. The president has accepted that resignation. Well find out momentarily. Live pictures from the Briefing Room. They are setting up for the president. Working on the flags. They have reporters standing by in the front row there getting ready to discuss. Our own jim accosta is there as well. Theyre all getting information on whats going on. Drew griffin is with us. Drew, you helped break this story weeks and weeks ago. You told us what was going on and right now potentially this could be the fruition. Whether or not the secretary of Foreign Affairs goes or stays. A very difficult decision. It has been a difficult decision for this president given shinsekis record not only as a combat veteran during the vietnam war, a fourstar u. S. Army general, someone who has worked since day one in the Obama Administration as secretary of Veterans Affairs. If he decides that shinseki will go, it will be largely because hes lost faith that shinseki can get the job done. Its a tough decision, wolf. The problem exists with or without shinseki there. There is a major, major problem at the Va Health System which needs to be fixed. If the president does in fact announce that mr. Shinseki is gone, there needs to be somebody in place very soon to get on the ground and fix these problems. So this is just the beginning of the actual solution. Eric shinseki staying or going will not fix the problem. Gloria borger is with us. You wrote an excellent piece on cnn. Com about this president. The potential of forced resignations if you will. The president has to make a decision now. He goes to belgium and france for 70th anniversary of the dday invasion. He needs to move on and get this over with one way or another. My own suspicion is hes going to announce that shinseki is gone. Well find out momentarily. This is a very, very difficult decision for a president who values loyalty, friendship and hard work among his cabinet secretaries. And dont forget that Eric Shinseki is a war hero, wolf, with a long history there. Hes somebody who has done a lot of things the president wants him to do such as taking on homelessness issue with veterans. I think this is difficult for any president. For this particular president who you know and we have spoken about this in the past, doesnt like to fire people much. I think its not easy. If this white house has given a hint about anything, its that general shinseki has been on a very short leash here. They want to hold him accountable. You heard him earlier this morning say that he himself was not aware of the extent of the problem. Given that he wasnt aware, the president can very easily turn to him and say thats unacceptable. Ive to hold you accountable. Youre the man at the top. I think thats probably likely what the president has done, wolf. I suspect youre right. Jim accosta is our white house corresponden correspondent. You are in the Briefing Room. He wrapped up this meeting with the secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki. I think shinseki has left the white house. He wont walk in with the president , is that right . We dont expect this to happen. This is a difficult decision for president obama as gloria and others have been saying. This is a president loathed to fire people. Hes loyal to his cabinet. Weve seen that over the years. What i have been told is this is a very different situation than we saw with hhs secretary kathleen sebelius. The white house was confidence the broken white house could be fixed. Theres real concern inside this white house as to whether or not Eric Shinseki can get to the root of these deep, deep embedded problems at the department of Veterans Affairs. You heard him earlier this morning saying hes been lied to by top officials inside that agency and people at the various hospital facilities around t country. This is a crisis in confidence. We heard earlier this week that the secretary is on thin ice and we heard the ice starting tocar was asked if the president had confidence in shinseki and he did not answer the question. Difficult to see the president come out say now he has confidence in Eric Shinseki. Its a matter of putting the toothpaste back in the tube. I dont think thats going to happen when we see the president come out in a few moments. We heard shinseki at a breakfast to help homeless vets. He says what occurred in recent week was a breach of integrity that is sun acceunacceptable to. He acknowledges whats going on more than 40 other va facilities across the United States, unacceptable to me is what shinseki said. Im sure if the president does announce that shinseki has resigned and accepted his resignation. Hell go out of his way to praise Eric Shinseki on the good things hes done. Going back to combat service during the vietnam war. Im sure the president will praise secretary shinseki even as he announces that hes going to bepresumably. If he announces that shinseki is leaving. The deputy secretary will become the interim secretary. Here comes the president , wolf. Here comes the president right now. Good morning, everybody. A few minutes ago secretary shinseki and rob nabors who i temporarily assigned to work with the va presented me with an initial review of the va facilities nationwide. What they found is that the misconduct has not been limited to a few va facilities but many across the country. Totally unacceptable. Our veterans deserve the best. They earned it. Last week i said that if we found misconduct it would be punished and i meant it. Secretary shinseki has now begun the process of firing many of the people responsible including Senior Leaders at the phoenix va. Hes canceled any possible performance bonuses this year for Senior Executive and he has ordered the va to personally contact every veteran in phoenix waiting for appointments to get them the care they need and that they deserve. This morning i think some of you also heard rick take a truly remarkable action in public remarks he took responsibility for the conduct of those facilities and apologized to his fellow rveterans and fellow americans. Rick shinseki submitted his resignation and with regret i accepted it. He did two tours of combat in vietnam. He left part of himself on the battlefield. He rose to command the first cavalry division. Served as army chief of staff. And has never been afraid to speak truth to power. As secretary of the va, he presided over record investments in our veterans. In enrolling veterans in healthcare, delivering disability pay to more Vietnam Veterans exposed to agent orange and making it easier for veterans with posttraumatic stress and Mental Health issues and improving care for our Women Veterans and at the same time he reduced veterans homelessness and helped more than 1 million veterans, Service Members and families pursue their education under the post 9 11 g. I. Bill so ricks commitment to our veterans is unquestioned. His service to our country is e e exemplary. I am grateful for his service as are many veterans across the country. He worked hard to investigate and identify the problems with access to care but as he told me this morning, the va needs new leadership to address them. He does not want to be a distraction because his priority is to fix the problem to make sure vets get the care they need. That was ricks judgment on behalf of his fellow veterans. I agree. We dont have time for distractions. We need to fix the problem. For now the leader that will help move us forward is sloan gibson who will take on reigns as acting secretary. Sloan game deputy secretary at the va a few months ago. He dedicated his life to serving our veterans. His grandfather fought on battlegrounds in world war i. He served in the infantry. Most recently he was president and ceo of the uso which does a remarkable job supporting our men and women at war, their families, our Wounded Warriors and families of the fallen. He has 20 years of private sector and nonprofit experience he brings to bear on our ongoing work and im gratefu