Stephen Colbert got really ‘excited’ about the Veterans Affairs controversy on “The Colbert Report” Thursday night, labeling the reports of secret lists and appointment delays “a real scandal.”
“I know I’ve cried wolf before, what with Benghazi and the IRS and the AP and ‘Fast and Furious’ and Solyndra and Obama’s uncle and Obama’s aunt and Obama’s birth certificate,” Colbert detailed, rattling off scandals — some legitimate, some, of course, not — that have occurred during the Obama administration.
But for as much as he sarcastically trashed his own list, some of issues are very much still alive. Judicial Watch obtained documents in April that suggest the White House misled America after the 2012 terror attack in Benghazi, for instance, leading Speaker John Boehner to organize a select committee to further investigate. The IRS scandal is also far from a wolf cry, with recently revealed documents pointing to Tea Party targeting originating at the department’s headquarters.
During his segment Thursday, Colbert was rarely serious at times, making light of the fact that President Obama promised in 2007, 2008 and 2012 that he would “fix” the issues in the Department of Veterans Affairs that were specified in a memo written by the Bush administration. “That promise has been kept, but he’s evidently forgotten where he’s keeping it. Maybe they should check the shoe box in the back of the White House closet labeled ‘to do,'” said Colbert.
He even voiced his two cents about why VA Secretary Eric Shinseki has refused to resign after the American Legion and others have called him to do so. “(It’s) probably because he knows once he retires he’ll have to use healthcare from the VA,” the comedian speculated.
Despite Colbert’s take, the VA scandal has been nothing to laugh about. Disorganization and deceit has allegedly plagued 26 Veterans Affairs hospitals and may have contributed to the deaths of up to 40 individuals.
