Congressional hopeful Clay Aiken admitted Tuesday morning he hasn’t been paying attention to the scandal plaguing the Department of Veterans Affairs, despite running in the North Carolina district that is home to Fort Bragg.
Aiken, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Renee Ellmers (R) appeared on NBC’s “Today” and was asked first if he believes VA Secretary Eric Shinseki should resign as more of the agency’s indiscretions come to light.
“I think we have a lot of people who are making decisions without being in the room,” he answered. “I’m not going to be one of those folks who wasn’t in the hearings, hasn’t paid attention to those details and wasn’t privy to that stuff in making decisions for that.”
The former “American Idol” contestant is running for election in North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District, which is home to Fort Bragg, a major Army installation. Aiken’s brother also did two tours of duty in Iraq.
While the congressional hopeful admitted he hadn’t been paying attention to the issues that have come to light within the VA, Aiken did say the government needs to provide better support for the agency.
“We’ve got to do a better job of funding the VA. We’ve got to do a better job of organizing the VA,” he said. “I think the VA should be possibly not in the healthcare business so much, as in the veterans care business in taking care of the needs of veterans.”
Many Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Jerry Moran (Kan.) and John Cornyn (Texas), have called on Shinseki to resign after it was reported that several VA medical treatment facilities — across eight states — were using secret waiting lists in an effort to conceal the long wait times veterans face before receiving medical care and reimbursement.
The American Legion and Concerned Veterans for America also called on the VA secretary, a former U.S. Army general, to step down.
