White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders on Wednesday said President Trump is still backing Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, after a string of embarrassing watchdog reports and scandals.
“Secretary Shulkin has done a great job as I outlined on Tuesday, a number of the things that have been improved upon at the VA under his leadership,” Sanders told reporters. “We’re proud of the work that we’ve done and we’re going to continue to do everything we can to protect the veterans and help veterans in this country.”
She added that Trump has told Shulkin to aggressively reform the VA, “and he’s done that since becoming secretary.”
Just hours earlier, the VA’s Office of Inspector General released a report saying that Shulkin and other VA leaders did nothing to fix up the VA hospital in Washington, D.C.
Last week, the Daily Beast reported that another IG report is expected to be released soon that says he used his personal security detail to run personal errands.
And just a few weeks ago, a top aide to Shulkin was deemed to have lied about the purpose of a trip he took to Europe last year so that his wife could go with him on the taxpayers’ dime.
Shulkin later apologized to VA workers for the $120,000 trip, but said he would not be stepping down, even though the top aide retired.
