White House asserts Shulkin 'resigned' from VA post

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill




BY JOSH DELK - 03/31/18 11:50 AM EDT

The White House now says Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin resigned from his post this week, despite Shulkin's claim that he was fired by the White House chief of staff, according to Politico.

Shulkin, who was fired after months of worsening relations among top VA officials and a controversy pointing to his improper use of taxpayer dollars for personal benefit, said this week that he received a phone call from chief of staff John Kelly informing him of his removal from the post.

But when asked by Politico on Saturday about the latest administration shake-up, VA spokeswoman Lindsey Walters said, "Secretary Shulkin resigned from his position as Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs."

A source familiar with the situation told Politico that Shulkin had never tendered a resignation letter, and that he was forced out so quickly that he never had the chance to give an official farewell address to the agency's employees.



Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/381107-white-house-asserts-shulkin-resigned-from-va-post

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. So they can assign someone to go in and privatize it probably, god damn the GOP hates

veterans.


GOP especially hates PTSD treatement and payments, they think it is made up, not the ones who have it or served mind you, just the FILTHY fucking chickenshit chickenhawks

[onecaliberal]

2. Offs. n/t

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Hairsplitting. He wouldn't have "resigned" unless he'd been told he was being fired.

[CincyDem]

5. My guess is that they've decided there's a crack in the Vacancies Act.

No legal scholar here but IIRC, "fired" isn't in the list of rationales for invoking the Vacancies Act. It's probably unclear but if they fill the role with the Vacancies Act, they might have decided all their privatization steps could be tied up in court for a while.

Just a hypothesis. For as dumb as these guys can be, they're precise in the language they use for their lies.

[notdarkyet]

13. I think you are right. Heard it somewhere msnbc? Today.

[Maeve]

4. Lying liars lie some more

So they can finagle the rules and put someone pliable in the job.

[Maxheader]

6. Can you believe

that 30% of your paycheck goes to pay these morons?

[Mr.Bill]

7. The term I use for these situations is

"He got resigned".

[CrispyQ]

12. LOL

[dmosh42]

8. Always has to be a lie from "the scumbag"!

[shraby]

9. Looks to me like trump is going to have to come up with Shulkin's letter of resignation.

That might be hard if he didn't submit one.

[dalton99a]

10. +1

[The Wizard]

11. Yeah right

and I'm still waiting for cash under my pillow for teeth I left there 65 years ago.

[riversedge]

14. Geesh. These Repugs just can not stop LYING.

[torius]

15. What Pruitt did was worse

and he's still there. That fact was in the news. So the claim of his resigning may be some attempt at a cover-up because of Pruitt not being fired over the condo scandal.

[SergeStorms]

16. Lies and cover-ups, lies and cover-ups.....

lies and cover-ups......that's the Trump administration's modus operandi. They seem to be the only things they're consistent with and show any aptitude toward. If they worked half as hard trying to run the government properly as they do for their lies and cover-ups, they might not need a revolving door for cabinet members and White House staff.

Trump says the White House is running like "a well oiled machine." How would Trump know what a well oiled machine looks like anyway? He's never run a machine in his entire life, unless of course one considers an ice cream scoop a "machine".