Our phone lines are open also a special line for veterans. You can catch up with us on your favorite social media pages, on twitter, facebook, or email us at journal cspan. Org. A very good saturday morning. The Eric Shinseki resignation playing out on the front pages of newspapers across the country. Here it is in the Washington Posts. To the kansas city star, there is a picture of Eric Shinseki yesterday at the National Coalition for homeless veterans, where he made a speech apologizing for delayed atment, and other service for delayed treatment and other service lapses at the ba. The headline there onto the arizona republic, the home state paper of the phoenix of thefacility phoenix v. A. Facility a quote from president obama. He Richmond Times dispatch already talked about the search for shinsekis since sasser for shinsekis successor. Times york that is the topic we are talking about for the first half of todays washington journal. Before we get to your calls i want to play you a little bit more from the president s statement yesterday on why hes why he accepted Eric Shinsekis resignation. [video clip] our commitment to our veterans is unquestioned. Our service to our country is exemplary. Im grateful for his service as well as our any veterans across the country. He has worked too hard to investigate and identify the problems with access to care. The v. A. Needs new leadership to address it. His priority is to fix the problem and make sure our vets are getting the care that they need. That was ricks judgment on behalf of the us that low behalf of his fellow veterans. We dont have time for distractions. We need to fix the problem. Host our phone lines are open. A special line is set aside for veterans. We want to hear from you in the first half hour of washington journal. That special line for veterans some comments on our Facebook Page on this topic. We will bring you other statements from the president and Eric Shinseki yesterday. We will start with darren calling it from massachusetts. Good morning. Caller hi. I have a comment. I just wanted to talk about what is really happening in the congress and what they are not doing. John boehner just spoke a minute ago it is a shame. Watch how these people vote. They do not care about these veterans out here. People work for this money. Raising the minimum wage. The people out here want that done. They will not do it. Vote these people out because they did not give a dam about these veterans. Lets go to our line for republicans. Barbara is waiting calling in from alabama. Thank you for waiting. Caller . Caller i think mr. Shinseki should be allowed to retire unless they are willing to return back to the people and the veterans their salary and their bonuses. It seems like this man has almost stolen from this country, from these veterans. Him saying he couldnt control it, he didnt know just doesnt make it as far as i am concerned. Talk more about eric , the former general who served in the vietnam war. When do you think the problems started under Eric Shinsekis watch. I think he was there when he accepted the position. He knew they were there. How many years was he there . Five . He was a general officer. Brigades. Ed he certainly should have been able to communicate with the at the bau will hospitals all across the country. At the ba hospitals all across the country. Hospitals all around the country. To not be able to fix them and to accept bonuses, and these other managers accept mrs. Dash to me that is just stealing from those veterans. Host whats go to mervyn waiting on our line for veterans calling in from los angeles, california. Good morning. Caller i think the reality is some people in the v. A. Worked tremendously hard. I find nothing but professionalism there. They really want to work it. , i and her. Shinseki took it he took a shaft. Goes tuesdayody and sends a message that our veterans cannot be treated so underfunded. Money soo spend more we have more doctors they can do more things. Host mervyn referencing the primary elections coming in california. I want to play you more from Eric Shinseki himself. He was making a steep for them making a speech before the match will coalition of homeless veterans. [video clip] the problem was limited, isolated, because i believed that. I no longer believe it is systemic. Too trusting of some and i accepted accurate reports that i was misleading with regard to patient wait times. This is something i rarely encounter during 30 years in uniform. I was not offended because it is indefensible. Take responsibility i do. I extend an apology to the people whom i care most deeply about, the veterans of this great country. To their families and loved ones that i have been honored to serve for over five years now. I also offer that apology to members of congress who have supported me. And to the american people. All of them deserve better from there v. A. , the leadership and integrity problems can and must be fixed. Host comments in the washington journal on our Facebook Page. Over twitter as well. Off of twitter on our Facebook Page a comment an Editorial Board in the New York Times writes we want to hear your thoughts. Lets go to germane waiting in new york on our line for democrats. Caller i do not blame generals shinseki generals personally. I do blame him on the fact that he has to check on everything that somebody says. Comes totely when it the president , the president is put in a bad position. The problem is the v. A. Does not have enough doctors and apparently not enough funding coming from congress. Im in hospitals a lot. I see a lot of people they have problems seeing doctors. The problems setting up appointments. Any hospital in new york city. Our veterans should not have to go through that. They should be automatic. Host lets go to kevin on our line for republicans. Caller first thing i want to do is thank all the veterans out there watching. Thank you for your service, thank you for our freedom. I do not personally blame generals and seki. Elaine general shinseki. He has served our country well. He cares about the veterans and he cares about what he was doing. I do not believe he wanted to resign. I believe it was a possibility to make positive change. He is in a leadership position. Percent charge takes the fall. Shinseki had to step down. Is a shamehing that is we are focusing so much subfunction seki. We should be focusing on what is causing the problems and what the real core of this is. Our veterans need to be taken care of because they take care of us. On the skyfocusing resigning we should be focusing on how do we improve this as a country, how can we help our veterans . Tackling some of those issues coming up in about 15 minutes on the washington journal. We are joined by a defense. Eporter for politico pro we are looking just to get your reaction this morning on the resignation of Eric Shinseki from the v. A. We have a special line for veterans. Matt is waiting in arkansas. Good morning. Everybody seems to be on the same page. History will look well on shinseki. Out and speak up for people in these facilities. They are hard workers. They deserve better than this. About there talking doctors and nurses . Caller yes, the whole staff. N we are talking to people like to hear what they have to say. I guarantee it is because of funding. We need to quit going after and take a deep breath and take a step back and really look at things. Thank you. Caller the host that line for veterans republicans seek to keep pressure on obama in the wake of shinsekis resignation. Boehner. Bit from john [video clip] generals shinseki has dedicated his life to our country and we thank him for his surface. For his service. His resignation does not absolve the president of his responsibility to step in and make things right for our veterans. Business as usual cannot continue. As a first step in the house of the v. A. Accountability act. Until a president outlines a ,ision and effective plan todays announcement changes nothing. One personnel change cannot be overas an excuse to paper a systemic problem. Our veterans deserve better. He will hold president accountable until he looks thing until he makes things right. Host here is cumbersome and paul cozart here is congressman paul goes are and senator patty murray we want to hear your thoughts and comments this morning as we alk about the v. A. It is the secondlargest Cabinet Agency in the nation. Of 165 billion dollars, that is greater than the state department and entire Intelligence Community combined. That includes 60 billion for health care. The v. A. Employs 20,000 personnel to run Major Medical centers and 300 storefront vet clinics and more than 50 regional benefit offices and facilities. The system provides health care to 9 million and rolled veterans, including 6 million who seek health care on a regular basis. Lets go to nancy waiting in webster city iowa on our line for democrats. Caller i would like to thank the vets for all theyve done. Seki general shinseki is nothing more than a whipping boy for republicans who have Nothing Better to do. There are not nearly enough clinics and hospitals to provide the kind of benefits that the veterans need. Thans probably only less the provideher million the millions of dollars of services. They need to forgive Student Loans for doctors, nurses, and get people in there. Maybe open up more clinics. Need to quit blocking laws that provide more money into the systems. They have been denying services for years. Host phyllis waiting in columbus, ohio. Good morning. I would also like to thank the veterans for serving i would like to give an overview very quickly. I dont fault shinseki for everything he has done. That wasbureaucrat placed on top of a molehill of a mess. Expect nobody who could anyone to solve those problems or take the blame. History if you look at it, unfortunately this country is very young. Mainly they are not educated or not that smart. If you look back when it came to the revolutionary war, there were people that were promised there was no paying for the soldiers. Plots ofised them land. When the war was over they came and said give us our land. Away. Orced them forget about the war of 1812. After the civil war people were coming back with arms and legs missing, there was no support for them. If you went back and they had a family they took care of european world war i had the bonus riots were actual veterans came to the see of our government and said, give us what you said we had. At the point of bayonets they drove them away. Now you look at world war ii. My father was a world war ii veteran. He was injured in the war. It takes 10 years with doctors itup on both sides took 10 years to get any benefits of any kind. This has been the history of our country. Host where are you a professor . Caller im not teaching at the moment. My point is in our country the veterans have not been taking care of, they have not been treated well. To the v. A. , they are trying to do everything they can do. But it is a bureaucracy. Make any amount you want, they are trying to deal with stuff. Theres nobody that is going to step their foot into it and say it is been this way for the beginning. Host on our twitter page peggy noonan it takes on this topic. She writes that is Peggy Noonans column if you want to read more. We will continue to take your calls on this topic. Some other changes in the Obama Administration leadership, this is on his press team. The announcement yesterday that jay carney was leaving at White House Press secretary, it makes the front page of the Washington Post. Jay carney is being replaced by his deputy josh earnest. There is a picture there of jay carney on the right and press secretary now promoted to press secretary josh earnest. Some stats from the Washington Post on jay carney. A news report from last june tot carney had responded questions of the daily brief you with three with variations of the phrase it also reported carney had about 9486tions times. We have five minutes left to continue taking your calls and then we will do it with our two guests in the next hour of the washington journal. Good morning. Caller the v. A. I have been to has been doing an outstanding job. I have no complaints. I am a threat i am a veteran of the korean war. Airplane, if you have certain things on an airplane that are critical, if it breaks you have a red light. Criticald have a that would index bring the critical areas to the attention of the secretary and he could respond. There is absolutely no reason at all for this to happen. They do need some new hospitals and clinics. Is whenk fix on it these critical performance indexes reaches a certain point, it would treat their it would trigger is the most part the v. A. Doing an outstanding job. Host you think there is a funding aspect of this as well . Caller the question about it. No question about it. Served as a Strategic Air command or during the gulf war. General would have these critical performance issues. He also had the authority to replace people immediately. You have to have that authority. People outyou have there who are simply not going to do their job as required. Host that is but a calling in from florida. Maverick writes we will go to teresa waiting on our line for democrats in illinois. Good morning. Caller good morning. I do enjoy your program so much. I deeplyt is that regret generals and seki had to resign. General shinseki had to resign. I was talking about the focus in arizona and i was wondering, is there data that the veterans in data of the veterans in arizona who have complaints. I am wondering if there is any kind of Data Tracking that and why didnt this come out so much sooner or earlier from the Senators Office . That would be my basic question. Questionill ask that in our next segment of the washington journal. A defenseined by reporter and political reporter. We will talk with them about this issue. Just a few more headlines from around the country today on the e of benghazi we will go to louisville, mississippi. Independent line, good morning. The reason i am calling is everybody seems to want to blame this on general shinseki and president obama. Where is the congress . 100 senators. Are the people that are supposed to be the eyes and ears of the people. Previous caller said where are they . To blame is trying general shinseki. What about the people that made these can you imagine a person thats taking money and denying Veterans Services . Host and our last caller for stay ong segment the lines, we will have veterans line open to talk about this issue. Willis talks about washington in the New York Times. During an interview buck mckeon discussed the new House Committee on benghazi. Heres a pdf that interview. A preview of that interview. [video clip] we were looking at a relatively small portion of the operation in benghazi. What happened prior to that time , what about the request for more security that was denied . Ambassador even in benghazi . The british have withdrawn. I think many questions remain to be answered. Saw the chairman recite a number of those questions. It is important we get to the bottom of it. From your perspective you are satisfied with the military response . Theiven what the posture of military was at the time, yes. We are not on a 24 7 rotation. We do not have pilots sitting on the runway with the plane fully me theird equipped with ammunition, weh cant do that. We now have Rapid Response or marines Rapid Response marines stationed around the world. That is a lesson we learned. We have the means to get them to where we didnt have the airlift with the marines. And then there was a requirement before they went into tripoli that they had to take their uniforms off and go in in civilian dress. Some of these things are ludicrous but we learn from those. Given the state of our financial situation and how much we cut back the military, i think we are in a better position right now. We are Still Limited and have a targets lot of soft to take care of. Us to discuss Eric Shinsekis resignation is leigh munsil and Chris Carroll. At one point at what point do think he was able to escape being a distraction . Guest there was a deception and scheduling of veteran appointments. It has been known for years and years that veterans had to wait a long time. What came out this week was they had established this system of keeping dual books. Some people were heading toward appointments and some people who keepept off the books to the weight. Wait period down. Guest it has been building for weeks. President obama was very supportive of Eric Shinseki. He did not necessarily want to remove him from his post. He thought secretary shinseki could deal with these issues but then it just builds and builds over the past couple of weeks. We heard from veterans groups. The Inspector General report came out on thursday. We had jeff miller of the v. A. Committee as well as john mccain on the senate side and buck mckeon of the armed services. Very tellingy a sign. I think that was the belt whether of this. Veterans callse that hurt him more . Inst i think that set it motion. The American Legion said he had to go and that is huge. Nothing has happen like that in decades. And the final straw was the lawmakers who had been supporting him, people like john mccain saying he is a distraction. Host we continue discussion on Eric Shinsekis resignation. Our phone lines are open. We are taking your comments and questions as we go about this. A special line continuing for veterans. With to be calling on that line for veterans from albany georgia. Caller thank