McCain on Hillary’s VA Comments: ‘Showed a Total Lack of Knowledge’
HH: First, though, I need your comment on former Secretary of State Clinton’s comment on the VA on Friday after an Benghazi hearing. Here’s what she said about the VA scandal, Senator McCain.
HC: It’s not been as widespread as it has been made out to be.
HH: What do you think of that?
JM: I think she did two things. One, she showed a total lack of knowledge of the seriousness and tragedies that have resulted from these massive failures in the VA and second of all, she politicized the issue. She went on and said Republicans are using it for political reasons. I can tell you there’s one issue up until what she said and what she has now done that was not partisan and that was Republicans and Democrats worked [together]. I negotiated with Bernie Sanders a VA reform bill. I worked with Democrats on a suicide prevention act. We have 8,000 veterans that are committing suicide very year, and she thinks that’s not a problem? That there’s hundreds, the VA deputy secretary admitted, there are nearly 500,000 appointments with extended wait times. You know of the story of the 50 veterans who died waiting on a phantom waiting list in Phoenix, Arizona. This is not only insensitivity, but it is abrogation of responsibility of the commander-in-chief. I think it was Lincoln, if I may paraphrase, “Take care of the wounded and the widows” – that famous line.
HH: Yes.
JM: Well obviously, she doesn’t feel that. And to degrade both the Congress and veterans and their challenges, I think is unacceptable for a commander-in-chief.
HH: She was in the process of doing a victory lap on MSNBC when she did that. It was late in the interview and she may not have focused, but she has not apologized for this, Senator McCain, and everybody who follows this story – you, Lindsey Graham, I follow the VA story because of its impact on the military – everyone’s expecting her to come out and say, “I’m sorry, it is widespread, and I will fix it,” but she won’t do that. Is she that stubborn?
JM: I don’t know the answer to it, but I have made numerous mistakes. In fact, several of them you have pointed out from time-to-time.
HH: (laughs)
JM: . . . Very appropriately. And the one thing that I have found is that when you make a mistake – I misspoke the other day on another issue about whether the terrorists had come across the Canadian border or not. For some reason, I had thought they had. I said on a talk show that they had, and I was wrong. And I immediately tweeted, I was wrong, and there was no more talk about it. And I would like to point out to you a lot of the other mistakes I’ve made, okay (laughs). But the point is, this is worse than misspeaking. This is a fundamental abrogation of our [responsibility] – who do we owe the most in our society? We owe all of our citizens a lot of things, but our veterans – to have a scandal that has a long way from being fixed – and by the way, small item, a VA hospital in Denver, I’m sure you probably heard, $1.7 billion cost overrun.
HH: Yes
JM: How many veterans could we save on that little fiasco? So there’s a lot to be done and by saying Republicans are exaggerating the extent of the scandal, she’s either partisan or ignorant.
HH: Now I got one last question on this. She also said that Republicans want to end the VA and I’m paraphrasing there. People can go read the whole article if they want, the transcript, but that’s what she said, and she was encouraged by Rachel Maddow to say that. I don’t know any Republican who wants to end the VA. I know a lot of Republicans who want to fix or make a second system available to vets if they can’t get into the VA. Do you know of any Republicans who are calling for the abolishment of the VA?
JM: No, but I do know a lot of veterans and legislatures, including me, absolutely want to give our veterans a choice card so that if they think they can get the best treatments someplace else besides the VA, then they should go to that healthcare provider.
HH: Yes, yes.
JM: Then they don’t have to worry about a waiting list. Look, the VA is great at many things: prosthetics, traumatic brain injury, PTSD. They’re great. There are other areas where you can get as good or better, and there’s no waiting list and so I’m for the universal choice card. I had to negotiate with Bernie Sanders, now if you’re outside of 40 miles of facility or have had a waiting list that’s in inordinate length of time. Now I want to make it for everybody and every veteran I’ve talked with this choice card has said, “Thank you, Senator, now I can go to the provider of my choice and I don’t have to wait to get on a waiting list.”
