Retaliating against comments that the ousted former head of Veterans Affairs didn’t resign, the White House on Sunday circulated a memo among veterans groups disputing David Shulkin’s claims, the Associated Press reported.
The White House maintains that Shulkin left his job willingly. The three-page memo obtained by the Associated Press, points out seven “lies” that Shulkin has shared, including his response to the ethics investigation into his use of taxpayer dollars to travel with his wife to Italy and his acceptance of free Wimbledon tennis tickets, according to the AP.
Shulkin made the rounds on cable news Sunday claiming he did not resign from the administration, a revelation that could hinder President Donald Trump’s ability to pick an acting head, which he announced on Twitter last week. A president is allowed to appoint an acting head to temporarily fill a federal agency job if a person dies, resigns or is unable to perform the job, but it’s unclear what the President is allowed to do in the case of a firing. Trump announced on Twitter last that his physician Ronny Jackson would become the new secretary of Veterans Affairs and Defense Department official Robert Wilkie would serve temporarily.
A Veterans Affairs watchdog determined last month that Shulkin violated ethics rules with his European trip. The White House reportedly was also frustrated with Shulkin after he spoke with the media infighting within the department and his suspicions of political appointees within his department attempting to oust him.
In a New York Times op-ed the day after he was ousted from the White House, Shulkin said he felt he was let go because of his opposition to privatizing veterans’ heal care.
It’s pretty fricking simple. Produce a resignation letter. Failing that produce a person that is empowered to accept a verbal resignation and have them sign an affidavit swearing under penalty of perjury Shulkin verbally informed them he was hereby resigning.
Very simple to clear this up. Show us Shulkin’s letter of resignation. Oh, and permit experts to examine the signature.
As POTUS becomes more obsessed with pushing back on anyone publicly disagreeing with him, things are likely to become more and more frenetic. If the WH has to push back on every disgruntled employee, there won’t be time for much else. If they had just let Shulkin make the rounds, this story could very well have been over by today; now it is likely to last much longer.
You have to wonder if this is part of the plan. If they create enough noise, the faithful won’t be able to hear the actual news.
As mentioned, something as simple as this…
The faithful get their “news” from Fox and Breitbart, so there’s little chance they’ll ever be exposed to what actually happened in the Shulkin removal, or anything else for that matter.