{"id":8325,"date":"2015-02-24T14:00:11","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T14:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=8325"},"modified":"2015-02-24T14:00:11","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T14:00:11","slug":"va-chief-incorrectly-states-military-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=8325","title":{"rendered":"VA chief 'inaccurately' states military service"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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When will this all stop? The fibbing, the “incorrect” statements about one’s personal history, the embarrassments.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the Pantheon of Prevaricators, Veterans Affairs Secretary\u00a0Robert McDonald.<\/p>\n

The new VA boss — hired to fix the problems that have plagued the Department of Veterans Affairs’ health care network — has been caught saying he served in the U.S. Army Special Forces when, in fact, he didn’t.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/politics\/us-veterans-secretary-apologizes-for-misstating-military-service-abc-news\/ar-BBhUHJ7<\/p>\n

McDonald was caught on camera telling a homeless veteran that he served in the elite fighting force. The vet told the secretary he had served in Special Forces. “Me, too,” McDonald answered, telling the fellow he also was a Special Forces soldier.<\/p>\n

To be fair, McDonald is a West Point graduate and did become an Army Ranger, which\u00a0happens to be an elite fighting force as well.\u00a0Why embellish those credentials?<\/p>\n

NBC News anchor Brian Williams has recently admitted to “misremembering” an incident in which he said\u00a0 a helicopter he was riding in was shot down by enemy fire in Iraq; it didn’t happen and he’s been suspended without pay for six months. Then came questions about Fox News talk show host Bill O’Reilly’s experience covering the Falklands War in 1982; he has said he came under fire covering that conflict but others have challenged his assertions, saying he didn’t set foot on the battlefield, as his reporting at the time and the years since have implied. O’Reilly and Fox are battling the accusations.<\/p>\n

McDonald has apologized for the incident, which was recorded by a CBS News crew. “I asked the man where he had served in the military,” McDonald said, according to ABC News. “He responded that he had served in special forces. I incorrectly stated that I had been in special forces. That was inaccurate and I apologize to anyone that was offended by my misstatement.”<\/p>\n

Inaccurate? Yeah, it was at least<\/em> that. I’d call it a “lie,” which is the kind of thing that got the VA into trouble in the first place, with hospital staffers falsifying<\/em> wait times that veterans were having to endure while seeking medical care.<\/p>\n

Get back to work, Mr. Secretary — and limit your public remarks to the job you’ve been assigned to do.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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When will this all stop? The fibbing, the “incorrect” statements about one’s personal history, the embarrassments. Welcome to the Pantheon of Prevaricators, Veterans Affairs Secretary\u00a0Robert McDonald. The new VA boss — hired to fix the problems that have plagued the Department of Veterans Affairs’ health care network — has been caught saying he served in … Continue reading VA chief 'inaccurately' states military service<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[465,640,690,748,1356,1788,3236,4354,5082,5084,5224],"class_list":["post-8325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","tag-army-rangers","tag-bill-oreilly","tag-bob-mcdonald","tag-brian-williams","tag-department-of-veterans-affairs","tag-fox-news","tag-nbc-news","tag-special-forces","tag-va-medical-care","tag-va-secretary","tag-west-point"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}