Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald issued a concilatory statement Tuesday following widespread backlash over his comments comparing veteran wait times at the VA to wait times at Disney.
“At VA we take our mission of caring for those who ‘shall have borne the battle’ very seriously; we have the best and most noble mission in government,” McDonald said in a statement published on the VA’s website.
“If my comments Monday led any veterans to believe that I, or the dedicated workforce I am privileged to lead, don’t take that noble mission seriously, I deeply regret that,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
McDonald drew fire from both sides of the aisle, including some Republican lawmakers who called for his resignation, after telling reporters Monday the VA did not consider wait times a “valid” measure of the agency’s success.
Delays in healthcare forced the resignation of McDonald’s predecessor, Eric Shinseki, after whistleblowers exposed a nationwide wait time manipulation scheme.
