Trump’s Cronies Threw the VA Into Chaos. Millions of Veterans’ Lives Are on the Line Again.

Julian Zelizer : Donald Trump won on the backs of veterans voters in 2016 election.

Zelizer says the people Trump chose to staff the VA constitute a rogues’ gallery of wild characters that rivaled, and perhaps even surpassed, the dysfunctional, self-serving appointees who ran rampant across various agencies on Trump ’s watch.

Trump has generally talked a lot less about veterans’ policy during this campaign than his first two .

Four former VA officials said Selnick and O'Rourke were leaders in what they described as a pack of Trump -backed goons who worked to “break” or “blow up” the VA .

O’Rourke, an Air Force veteran with a background running a Republican political action committee, became the founding director of the VA’s Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection .

David Gergen : The cost of VA care outsourcing has more than doubled in recent years , to nearly $30 billion annually .

Gergen says veterans were not factored into key decisions; ego, politics, and deception often dominated work and decision-making.

Biden ’s appointments to the VA have reasserted a level of professionalism throughout the agency, he says.