White House says Obama only learned of VA wait-list scandal on TV (just like the IRS, Fast and Furious and reporter snooping scandals)
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the president didn't know about explosive Veterans Administration scandal until he saw news reports
Earlier in the day a report emerged showing the VA itself warned Obama's transition team about it after the 2008 election
Obama and his surrogates have claimed he learned of several other scandals from broadcast or print news stories
They include Operation Fast and Furious, the IRS's targeting of tea parties and a DOJ seizure of two months of Associated Press phone records
VA medical centers stand accused of keeping secret off-the-books waiting lists in order to cook the books and boost performance stats
As many as 40 veterans died in Phoenix when they were denied critical care because their names didn't appear on official waiting lists
By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor
Published: 16:35 EST, 19 May 2014 | Updated: 16:48 EST, 19 May 2014
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White House Press Secretary Jay Carney wound up with egg on his face Monday as he told reporters that President Barack Obama first learned from a TV news report that his Veterans Administration was denying medical care to vets with secret off-the-books-waiting lists.
But new evidence emerged this morning that his transition team was notified five years ago about how VA medical centers' official wait-list times bore little resemblance to reality and risked denying military heroes critical health care.
The Washington Times reported Monday that waiting times at veterans' medical facilities were known to be wildly inaccurate at the end of the George W. Bush administration. By the time Obama's transition team got a post-election briefing from the VA at the end of 2008, scheduling failures were already reaching a critical point.
The newspaper received a copy of that briefing through a Freedom Of Information Act request.
Obama has come under fire before for saying he was made aware of scandal-worthy shortcomings in his own administration by watching television, including the IRS tea party-targeting scandal that rocked Washington 12 months ago and the Operation Fast and Furious saga that has tainted his Justice Department for years.
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White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday that the White House 'learned about' the growing VA scandal 'through the reports' in the news
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White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday that the White House 'learned about' the growing VA scandal 'through the reports' in the news
First of many flashbacks: Facing revelations that his IRS had played political favorites and intentionally hamstrung tea party groups, Obama said that he 'first learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this'
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First of many flashbacks: Facing revelations that his IRS had played political favorites and intentionally hamstrung tea party groups, Obama said that he 'first learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this'
The American Legion and other veterans advocacy groups are hopping mad about an under-the-table waiting list scandal that appears to have cost dozens of lives in just one Phoenix medical center
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The American Legion and other veterans advocacy groups are hopping mad about an under-the-table waiting list scandal that appears to have cost dozens of lives in just one Phoenix medical center
Suicides: Psychiatrist Margaret Moxness told Fox News on Monday that she believes a West Virginia VA hospital?s appointment system was so dysfunctional that at least two veterans took their own lives
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Suicides: Psychiatrist Margaret Moxness told Fox News on Monday that she believes a West Virginia VA hospital?s appointment system was so dysfunctional that at least two veterans took their own lives
A CNN reporter asked Carney on Monday when the president was 'first made aware ... of these fraudulent lists that were being kept to hide the wait times' at VA medical centers.
'You mean the specific allegations,' Carney asked, 'that I think were reported first by your news network out of Phoenix, I believe?'
'We learned about them through the reports. I will double check if that is not the case. But that is when we learned about them and that is when I understand Secretary Shinseki learned about them, and he immediately took the action that he has taken.'
After the Operation Fast and Furious scandal broke, Obama responded to national outrage in an interview broadcast by CNN's John King on October 12, 2011, similarly saying he was out of the loop until he turned on his television.
'There have been problems, you know,' the president said then. 'I heard on the news about this story that – Fast and Furious, where allegedly guns were being run into Mexico, and ATF knew about it, but didn't apprehend those who had sent [the guns].'
A few months into his presidency, Obama's White House approved an unannounced New York City flyover by Air Force One, with a fighter jet following closely, in order to capture a photograph of the iconic plane over the Statue of Liberty.
Some buildings were evacuated and emergency phone lines were jammed as panicked New Yorkers feared a terror attack was imminent.
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'Madder than hell': Obama furious over treatment delays at VA hospitals blamed for 40 deaths as health official is forced to resign
Veterans Affairs Undersecretary Robert Petzl didn't resign, but was FORCED OUT by Obama administration amid deadly health care scandal blamed for 40 deaths
High-level resignation rocks Veterans Affairs Department amid deadly health care scandal, but lawmakers still smell blood
'Mad as hell': Veterans Affairs chief tells Senators he's just as upset as they are over allegations 40 patients died in secret waiting list scandal
DOJ won't investigate deaths of veterans placed on VA hospital's secret waiting list 'at this time'
'It was a mistake,' the president said on April 28, 2009, the day after the flight. 'It was something we found out about along with all of you. And it will not happen again.'
Last year on May 14, Carney told reporters that Obama had learned about his Department of Justice seizing two months' worth of Associated Press journalists' phone records 'from news reports yesterday, on the road.'
'We don't have any independent knowledge of that,' Carney insisted.
That punt came just one day after Obama himself told the Washington press corps during a joint press conference with UK Prime Minister David Cameron that he was in the dark – until it hit news reports – that the Internal Revenue Service had targeted conservative nonprofit groups for special inquisitions when they applied for tax-exempt status.
'I first learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this,' he said in the East Room of the White House on May 13, 2013. 'I think it was on Friday. And this is pretty straightforward.'
'I've got no patience with it,' Obama said moments later. 'I will not tolerate it. And we will make sure that we find out exactly what happened on this.'
Human face: This month Army veteran Kryn Miner was buried in Essex, Vt. His widow Amy Miner, third from left, believes the Veterans Affairs health system should have done more to help him as he struggled with PTSD. He was shot to death by one of their children in April after he threatened to kill the entire family
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Human face: This month Army veteran Kryn Miner was buried in Essex, Vt. His widow Amy Miner, third from left, believes the Veterans Affairs health system should have done more to help him as he struggled with PTSD. He was shot to death by one of their children in April after he threatened to kill the entire family
In 2011 Obama told CNN that he first 'heard on the news about & Operation Fast and Furious, where allegedly guns were being run into Mexico, and ATF knew about it'
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In 2011 Obama told CNN that he first 'heard on the news about & Operation Fast and Furious, where allegedly guns were being run into Mexico, and ATF knew about it'
The president told reporters in 2009 that he found out along with reporters that his administration has approved an unannounced Air Force One flyover in NYC that spooked commuters and lit up 911 phone lines with terror-attack fears
VA Secretary vows to act over secret waiting list scandal
White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer told Sunday morning talk show audiences the following weekend that Obama was first informed 'when it came out in the news.'
A year later, accused IRS targeting instigator Lois Lerner has been held in contempt of Congress and her fate rests with Attorney General Eric Holder. A criminal investigation in the Department of Justice, which has issued no findings, is being managed by an attorney who donated thousands of dollars to Obama's political campaigns.
Obama's reputation for using the news media as his own coal-mine canary reached comic proportions that week when 'The Daily Show' host Jon Stewart carped that 'I wouldn’t be surprised if President Obama learned Osama bin Laden had been killed when he saw himself announce it on television.'
Some Republicans are fearing déjà vu as the VA medical scandal gathers steam.
'This is becoming a pattern,' a senior Republican Senate aide told MailOnline on Monday. 'The president supposedly learns about it while channel-surfing, tells us how outraged he is, and then what? Buries it?'
Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is under fire as his agency's health system seems to be coming apart at the seams and the White House claims it didn't know
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Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is under fire as his agency's health system seems to be coming apart at the seams and the White House claims it didn't know
'That might wash with the tea party, but not with veterans. No one around here is inclined to let that happen.'
The Veterans Affairs Department briefing given to Obama's transition team after his first presidential election victory warned specifically that its own medical appointment scheduling practices were putting lives in danger.
'This is not only a data integrity issue in which [Veterans Health Administration] reports unreliable performance data,' the transition report read; 'it affects quality of care by delaying – and potentially denying — deserving veterans timely care.'
It also recommended a series of tests that would compare doctor appointments in veterans' official medical records with appointment times recorded in the VA's computer system.
As the VA scandal gathers momentum, doctors are beginning to put a human face on the tragedy.
Dr. Margaret Moxness, a whistle-blowing psychiatrist, told the Fox News Channel on Monday that she believes a West Virginia VA hospital where she once worked had an appointment system so dysfunctional that at least two veterans took their own lives.
Bureaucrats, she said, 'don't really experience what the doctors and nurses are experiencing, which is the suffering and the pain and the death.'
Moxness explained that her patients often had to wait months for follow-up appointments after she prescribed antidepressant medications that require check-ups after 10 days.
Some couldn't wait out their psychological pain and committed suicide.
VA Undersecretary for Health Robert Petzel resigned on Friday a day after telling a congressional committee that he was aware of a 2010 memo warning about the problems, which materialized in a Phoenix, Arizona VA medical center when as many as 40 veterans died while awaiting critical care. Computer records indicated that the vets were not on a waiting list at all.
Carney hinted Monday that Obama is likely to address the new scandal.
'I'm sure you'll hear from him at some point on this issue soon,' he said.
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