Veterans groups werent invited to Trumps first VA listening session
President Trump held a series of so-called White House listening sessions with various groups Monday, providing the nation more images of himself at work with some of the country’s most influential leaders. In an unusual move for the president, Trump passed up a photo-op when he kicked out the press just before the start of his meeting on veterans affairs — perhaps because the president failed to invite any of the nation’s leading veterans advocacy groups.
According to the Military Times, officials from the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans and the Veterans of Foreign Wars first heard of Trump’s White House meeting when it was announced Monday night. Other prominent veterans groups like VoteVets, which released a scathing ad directed at the president Monday, also did not attend the meeting Tuesday. In December, dozens of veterans groups met with members of Trump’s transition team for roughly two hours, but not with the then-president-elect himself.
Toby Cosgrove, CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, who was invited to the White House Tuesday, said after the meeting that the discussion had ranged “from governance to modernization to accountability across the organization.” Trump promised in January that, “We’re gonna set up a group. These are hospitals that have been the top of the line, the absolute top of the line. And they’re going to get together with their great doctors … and we’re gonna straighten out the VA for our veterans.”
Trump’s pick to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, David Shulkin, did attend the White House meeting hours before his confirmation vote in the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. Despite his campaign proclamations that “President Obama has allowed our Veterans Affairs health-care system to deny help and support to those who deserve it most,” Trump promoted Obama’s VA undersecretary of health to a Cabinet position.
http://www.salon.com/2017/02/07/a-mixed-message-to-vets-veterans-groups-werent-invited-to-trumps-first-va-listening-session/
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