Republican presidential candidate Jim Gilmore believes he is the best candidate for veterans — but why?
“Experience,” the Army veteran said in a phone interview with the Washington Examiner. “The fact that I have actually been in uniform, stationed overseas. I’m one of the two veterans in the race … I have empathy and understanding of veterans that I think other candidates — there’s no reason for them to have it. I have actual experience. And from a managerial standpoint, we have to get things done. We have to understand that we have to make it a priority.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is the only other remaining presidential candidate in either party that has military experience.
Gilmore said that the U.S. needs to take better care of its veterans and improve access and quality of medical care.
“I’m talking about post-traumatic stress disorder,” he told the Examiner, “and the fact that we don’t fill vacancies in so many of those psychology positions in the Veterans Administration because of location and lack of money … The problem of suicide that can be caused by all this. Those are the issues I would address.”
In his criticism of the Veterans Affairs Department, Gilmore cited a VA report released in September that revealed about 307,000 veterans died while their applications were being processed for medical attention they needed. He also brought up the two VA officials who last week appeared before the House Veterans Affairs committee and invoked their Fifth Amendment rights in refusing to testify on whether they abused a program that provides compensation for individuals taking jobs in other states.
“I promise we’re going to evaluate the problems,” Gilmore said, if he is elected president. He said he would establish “real management” in the VA Department and provide solutions to hospitalization issues.
The former Virginia governor is campaigning in New Hampshire and spoke at a Keene State College Saturday morning to outline his vision for war veterans. In the afternoon he attended a Salute to Service at the University of New Hampshire Wildcats football game along with fellow veterans and veteran groups.
At Keene State College, Gilmore pressed the importance of recruiting psychologists to help treat veterans.
“What we have — many, many positions in the Veterans [Health] Administration for psychologists go empty, and nobody’s addressing the fact that we have to be in a position to recruit psychologists to go on to places, all across this country, and in rural places, and particularly in New Hampshire and be prepared to address these kinds of issues,” Gilmore said.
Gilmore currently ranks last in the Examiner’s presidential power rankings. He consistently polls nationally at or just above 0 percent and does not appear in the RealClearPolitics average of polls for GOP presidential primary contenders.
