McCain Plays "Better Man" Card Against Trump. Was Trump Wrong Or Was He Calling One Of The Biggest RINOs In Congress Out? ByThe Way, McCain Has NOT Been A Strong Advocate For Veterans Or He Would Not Have Allowed Worst VA Hospital Be In His State!

John McCain: Trump Owes Apologies to POWs, Not to Me

Monday, 20 Jul 2015 08:32 AM

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Sen. John McCain, responding to comments by presidential candidate Donald Trump that his being captured in Vietnam supposedly sullied his service, said Monday that Trump did not owe him an apology.

"No, I don't think so," McCain responded on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" when asked if Trump owes him an apology. "But I do think he owes an apology to the families of those who have sacrificed in conflict and those who have undergone the prison experience, who served their country honorably."

"I'm in the arena as T.R. used to say," McCain continued. "But in the case of many of our veterans, when Mr. Trump said he prefers those people who have not been captured, a great honor of my life was to serve in the company of heroes. I'm not a hero."

Story continues below video.

Trump has been under fire from the large GOP field — with the notable exception of Ted Cruz — after saying on Saturday in Iowa that McCain is "not a war hero" and a "loser." McCain was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for more than five years.

Trump's criticism was sparked by McCain's criticism of people who support Trump's position against illegal immigration. He called them "crazies."

The Republican National Committee criticized Trump for what he said about McCain, but Trump noted in a USA Today piece published Sunday night that "no one in the news media or the establishment, including the Republican National Committee, criticized" McCain's original comments against the Trump supporters.

McCain spoke about the commanders who led the POWs in the Hanoi Hilton, the infamous prison where he was held. McCain said it was those ranking officers who inspired him to survive during his ordeal.

"Those who were my senior ranking officers... those were the ones who inspired us to do things we otherwise wouldn't have been capable of doing. Those are the people I think he owes an apology to."

McCain, a Naval aviator, was shot down in 1967 over North Vietnam and fractured both arms and legs after being ejected from his aircraft. He was repeatedly tortured during his stay — and refused early release when the North Vietnamese learned his father was a Navy admiral — until he finally returned home in 1973 following the Paris Peace Accords.

The Arizona senator, who has limited mobility in his arms following his war experience, received the Distinguished Flying Cross, a Silver Star and a Purple Heart for his service.

Trump, meanwhile, received several deferments during the war. According to The Smoking Gun, which obtained selective service records for Trump in 2011, he received four student deferments between 1964 and 1968, and later a medical deferment in 1968.

"For me to look back in anger at anyone is nonproductive," McCain said. "And our country was divided in an almost unprecedented fashion during the Vietnam War, and when I came home I was shocked. So I've worked ever since to try to heal those wounds."

McCain isn't calling for Trump to drop out of the campaign for the 2016 GOP nomination.

"I think that's a decision that he would have to make," McCain said. "Again, what I think [he] should do is apologize to the families and those who have served... those are the people he should apologize to."

Further, McCain said, veterans are "not happy" about Trump's comments.

"I can assure you that if you talk to our veterans, and I've had a flood of calls from our veterans," said McCain. "They are not happy."

McCain said he is not resentful that Trump, who did not serve in Vietnam after he was determined exempt from the draft, made the comments to criticize him.

"I think you are old enough to remember the controversies and the wounds of the Vietnam war," McCain told MSNBC host Joe Scarborough. "It may be the only war that you and I ever knew much about where the veterans were not welcomed home. And that's why I work so hard on the normalization of relations between our countries, a full accounting for those missing in action. In other words, put this behind us and move forward. Now we have a good relationship with Vietnam."

And as for Trump?

"I put all that behind me," said McCain. "For me to look back in anger at anyone is nonproductive and our country is — was — divided in an almost unprecedented fashion during the Vietnam War. When I came home, I was shocked. I worked ever since to heal those wounds."

And while Trump said he made the comments because of McCain's "terrible" record with veterans, the Arizona senator pointed out that he does "everything I can to help them."

"As you know, [there are] major scandals going on" he said. "I had two pieces of legislation to try that issue. Best thing to do is put it behind us and move forward and just express our gratitude to those who have served and sacrificed."

The real heroes, though, are "the 55,000 names that are down on the wall engraved in black granite that I stop by sometimes early in the morning and when the sun is going down."

He said he also spent Independence Day with men and women serving in Afghanistan, "and I can tell you they are just wonderful. Better than my generation."

As to Trump's outrage at calling his supporters "crazies," McCain joked that in his "very dynamic and divisive state," he has "hundreds of town hall meetings in Arizona and I'm called crazy. I thought it was a term of endearment."

But he told MSNBC correspondent Willie Geist that he is not going to apologize for that, he said, because he meant what he said, because "I love my people and so I meant it in a way, in a term of affection, to be honest with you."

© 2015 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Death Counts At VA Hospitals Will Get Higher As Investigations Continue

Interim VA Secretary: 18 Confirmed Deaths From Secret Wait Lists

Thursday, 05 Jun 2014 08:15 PM

By Jason Devaney

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Sloan Gibson, the temporary head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, confirmed Thursday that 18 current and/or former members of the military died after being put on a secret waiting list.

The troubled agency is embroiled in a scandal involving fake waiting lists and reports that 40 veterans died while waiting months to be seen by doctors at the Phoenix VA hospital.

Gibson, a former Army infantry officer who earned both Airborne and Ranger qualifications during his military service, was hired to be the VA's deputy secretary in February. He was temporarily promoted to secretary after Eric Shinseki resigned on May 30 while a permanent replacement is found.

Dr. Sam Foote, who worked at the Phoenix hospital until his retirement in December, spent months trying to alert VA authorities about the false record keeping that was taking place in the facility. There were allegedly two waiting lists — the real one, which was kept in secret, and a false one, which was used for reporting purposes. Veterans seeking treatment for a variety of injuries and ailments reportedly had to wait months just to see a doctor, a fact that remained hidden because of the fake list.

Whistleblower Foote claimed that 40 veterans died while waiting for care in Phoenix.

Gibson, according to the Arizona Republic, said 1,700 patients were held on the secret waiting list at the Phoenix hospital. The 18 who died were among that group. Gibson did not know if the 18 deaths were part of the 40 Foote referenced.

"We have to work to earn back the trust of each veteran and we'll do that one veteran at a time," Gibson said.

Gibson said he had details on 14 of the deaths, and most of the patients had come to the VA for "end of life care," according to the Arizona Republic report.

"None of that excuses us," Gibson said. "These lists were not being worked — inexcusable."

Since the news of the Phoenix hospital scandal, other VA hospitals across the nationhave been found to use similar wait list tactics. A whistleblower at the St. Louis VA Medical Center said he's been bullied and punished after saying doctors at that facility were not working as much as they should.

And in Florida, VA hospitals have been said to have "deplorable" conditions.

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• VA Hospital Chapels Told to Hide Religious Symbols
• Chicago VA Hospital Also Using Secret Wait List to Hide Delays
  

© 2014 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

The Very Poor State Of VA Hospitals. A View Of The Future Under ObamaCrapCare.

Veterans dying because of health care delays

By Scott Bronstein, Nelli Black, and Drew Griffin, CNN Investigations

updated 9:34 PM EST, Thu January 30, 2014

VA hospital delays costing lives

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• CNN has learned 19 veterans died because of delays in basic screenings
• The delays occurred at VA hospitals and clinics
• It took a year for veteran Barry Coates to get a colonoscopy
• He is now undergoing chemotherapy for rectal cancer

(CNN) -- U.S. veterans are dying because of delays in diagnosis and treatment at VA hospitals.

At least 19 veterans have died because of delays in simple medical screenings like colonoscopies or endoscopies, at various VA hospitals or clinics, CNN has learned.

That's according to an internal document from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, obtained exclusively by CNN, that deals with patients diagnosed with cancer in 2010 and 2011.

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The veterans were part of 82 vets who have died or are dying or have suffered serious injuries as a result of delayed diagnosis or treatment for colonoscopies or endoscopies.

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Barry Coates is one of the veterans who has suffered from a delay in care. Coates was having excruciating pain and rectal bleeding in 2011. For a year the Army veteran went to several VA clinics and hospitals in South Carolina, trying to get help. But the VA's diagnosis was hemorrhoids, and aside from simple pain medication he was told he might need a colonoscopy.

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"The problem was getting worse and I was having more pain," Coates said, talking about one specific VA doctor who he saw every few months. "She again examined me and gave me some prescriptions for other things as far as pain and stuff like that and I noticed again she made another comment -- 'may need colonoscopy.'

"I told her that something needed to be done," said Coates. "But nothing was ever set up ... a consult was never set up."

"I had already been in pain and suffering from this problem for over six months and it wasn't getting better," Coates said. "I told her that if you were in as much pain as I was and had been going through you wouldn't wait another two months to see what's going on. You would probably do it this week."

Coates waited months, even begging for an appointment to have his colonoscopy. But he only found himself on a growing list of veterans also waiting for appointments and procedures. He was finally told he could have a colonoscopy, many months later.

"I took it upon my own self to call the department that scheduled that and ask them about it. And they said this was the earliest appointment that I could get. And I explained to the lady what I had already been through and how much pain I had, and I said if I wait this long there might not be ... (anything) we can do about it then. I could be even dead by then. And the only thing she could tell me was 'I understand that, sir, but I don't have any control over that.' "

Finally about a year after first complaining to his doctors of the pain, Coates got a colonoscopy and doctors discovered a cancerous tumor the size of a baseball.

The now 44-year-old veteran is undergoing chemotherapy in an effort to save his life.

It is unclear whether anyone responsible at the VA has been fired, demoted or even admonished for the delays in care and treatment. Some of the people responsible may have even received bonuses in recent years for their work, despite the delays in care or treatment for the veterans.

According to the document obtained by CNN, 10 veterans are confirmed to have died in the South Carolina and Georgia region alone. And the document shows 29 vets or their families were sent the disclosures, notifying them they had serious "adverse events" because of delayed care. And according to the document the problems go far beyond Georgia or South Carolina.

In the Florida region, five veterans are dead, and 14 vets or their families were sent the disclosures, notified that they suffered "adverse events" because of delayed or denied care or diagnosis, according to the exclusive document.

In the Rocky Mountain region, two veterans died, and four families were sent the disclosures or notified. In the Texas region, seven vets or their families were sent disclosures about adverse events and serious injuries suffered because of delayed care.

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Coates filed a legal claim, citing the "failure of the Columbia (South Carolina) VA Medical Center to timely diagnose his rectal cancer." The VA settled, but admitted no wrong-doing.

"I don't know what my outcome is going to be," said Coates.

"I just try to live every day like it's my last day."

The new document obtained by CNN shows a worse problem than has previously been made public by the VA.

As CNN has previously reported, as many as 7,000 veterans were on a backlog list -- waiting too long for colonscopies or endoscopies -- at VA facilities in Columbia, South Carolina and Augusta, Georgia.

After CNN's detailed accounting of dela-related deaths at the Columbia and Augusta VA hospitals, a bi-partisan group of Congressmen visited the hospitals, demanding answers.

"We have a duty to make sure that the veterans who serve get the best health care possible," said Rep. John Barrow, D-Georgia. "And it is very obvious that for too long and for too many folks that hasn't happened."

The VA said the backlog at those two hospitals has been solved, but that is not a good enough explanation for Rep. Jeff Miller, the chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

"The fact that we've had veterans who have died in the very facilities that are supposed to be taking care of them, and not by natural means, by means that could have been prevented is egregious," said Miller, R-Florida. "And it's not acceptable."

Miller said the VA, from the top down, has consistently ignored his committee's requests to find out who is responsible. Even with the delays in care which have led to deaths and serious injuries, the congressman said not a single person has been fired or even demoted, and in fact some of those responsible may have even gotten bonuses.

"I grieve for the families who lost loved ones that could have been with them this Christmas that would be celebrating 2014 today had the backlog not existed," said Miller. "That's not what anybody in this country wants for our veterans."

He said the lack of accountability is what angers him most.

"That's why we asked the question again today, with members of the South Carolina delegation and Georgia delegation, tell us exactly who was disciplined and how. I don't want to hear the excuse anymore that 'It was multi-faceted. ...There were many people involved' " said Miller.

"Well if there were many people involved then they all need to go. We are not asking for one particular person, we want to know exactly why things happened and who was held responsible, At this point publicly, we haven't seen anybody held responsible."

CNN has made repeated requests for interviews with top officials at the VA, including President Obama's appointed head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Secretary Eric Shinseki. The requests have all been denied, or ignored.

The VA did issue a written statement from Dr. Robert Petzel, the Under Secretary for Health at the department of Veterans Affairs. In the statement, Petzel wrote that "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) cares deeply for every Veteran we are privileged to serve. Our goal is to provide the best quality, safe and effective health care our Veterans have earned and deserve. We take seriously any issue that occurs at any one of the more than 1,700 VA health care facilities across the country."

He also stated: "As a result of the consult delay issue VA discovered at two of our medical centers, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) conducted a national review of consults across the system. We have redesigned the consult process to better monitor consult timeliness. We continue to take action to strengthen oversight mechanisms and prevent a similar delay at another VA medical center. We take any issue of this nature extremely seriously and offer our sincerest condolences to families and individuals who have been affected and lost a loved one."

In August 2007, presidential candidate Barack Obama gave a campaign speech to veterans specifically addressing wait lists, denied care and poor treatment of vets. He promised his administration would be different.

"No veteran should have to fill out a 23-page claim to get care, or wait months -- even years -- to get an appointment at the VA," said then-candidate Obama.

"When we fail to keep faith with our veterans, the bond between our nation and our nation's heroes becomes frayed. When a veteran is denied care, we are all dishonored."

But Coates said for him the speech is an empty promise.

"Someone needs to stand and face the person who suffered and the veterans who have died and say, 'Hey it was me, I let the ball drop,' " he said.

"How many lives are we going to lose from this?"

"When is it going to be corrected?"