Page 42 - Phoenix Va News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

There's no doubt. we certainly encourage vets to continue to go to the va especially if they're in crisis. >> you know, chris, what's shocking to me, it seems the president of the united states, secretary of veterans affairs, they were shocked to learn about all of these problems. that they really didn't know what was going on. lower level officials weren't telling them the truth. that's pretty shocking in and of itself. >> it is. you had the president today say, well how did this happen? at his speech earlier this morning, his last speak as secretary, eric shinseki said i was lied to. you hav...

I question why he hasn't himself been able to find out those facts. let's put it at face value. if he's saying the core team surrounding him as lied to him and he's 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 what's 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 he's done a great job with homeless veterans. it's a bigger part to take one part of the va...

Trust he's getting good information and it's life or death. i think he's deeply disappointed in the fact that bad news did not get to him and that the structures weren't in place for him to identify this problem quickly and fix it. his priority now is to make sure that happens and he felt like new leadership would serve our veterans best and i agree with him. phil mattingly? >> reporter: mr. president, based on the audit, early stage audit that secretary presented to you, is there a sense there was criminal wrongdoing and more broadly how much responsibility do you personally bear as an issue ...

A grand jury, subpoenas, they've got to start working quickly. >> yes. and this is widespread across the country. they do need to get a handle on it. and they also have to get the record. we're talking about the destruction of records in many places. is the evidence still be destroyed? we don't know. obviously the problem is very large and widespread, which is what eric shinseki found out last night. >> and the allegation is, the fear is that individuals, bureaucrats at the department of veterans affairs were lying and cheating, misleading people about lists and wait litigations trying to make...

Team. one of the criticisms is he didn't reach out enough, wasn't open enough to hearing some of the problems having pex feel free to come with him with the problems at the v.a. so the political firestorm overtakes him. but what really was the deal killer here, if you will, was this information that came to light that he was being lied to, misled, that the problems were systemic across the department. once that happened, management style or not, a leader has a loss of confidence from the president and it seemed very inevitable that he would go. with that ground work, who do you pick to be the ...