Veterans Affairs (VA) Director Doug Collins confronted the military department's Patricia Kime on Tuesday on suspicion of “a tale of allegations and rumors” about his agency's employees.
The VA Secretary laughed at the joke Report Since February, the title “Elon Musk Aide is currently working at VA and has access to computer systems.” Collins pulled the article and asked him to read from there and promised to write no longer a non-true story that scared and hurt his employees.
“It's one of the problems we have and I have it here, I need your help with something,” Collins said. “Because all I seem to be doing these days is fighting the all-implication and rumor stories. And this is what I always seem to be fighting. In fact, Patricia is with you. When you start the headline “There are rumors,” and when you start the headline “Injury veterans and scare veterans,” I need your help. It scares my employees. Do you promise not to do that in the future? …We have employees of our Doge liaison, VA. You knew that and could ask that question. ”
“I asked that question,” Kime said. (Related: Service members go home just to find themselves in a new hell – VA's cold bureaucracy)
Reporter – Help veterans by not spreading unconfirmed rumors. @deptvetaffairs. thank you! pic.twitter.com/rzbmqn5vmy
– VA Secretary Doug Collins (@secvetaffairs) March 11, 2025
In her report, Kime wrote that “rumors have begun to spread” about Doge representatives visiting agencies to “mine data on disability compensation and benefits.” VA Press Director Pete Casperowitz told Kime in February that he had one Doge employee focused on “identifying wasteful contracts, improving VA operations, and strengthening IT projects for the department.”
The Trump administration is reportedly to cut 80,000 jobs from the VA to bring it back to 2019 staffing levels with 400,000 employees.
The film cites Democrat Washington Sen. Patty Murray, who said Dodge “maybe he put him in Virginia.” Collins criticized reporters for using the Senator's allegations to call unconfirmed reports rumors.
“And you went to Patty Murray and said, 'We've heard of it, and Doge might have plunged into the VA today.' Unidentified heresy,” continued Collins. “If I'm a member of Congress and probably did that, do you know what I did? Unconfirmed reports, but there were no unconfirmed reports. Patricia, I want to work with you, but you need to commit to me that you're not going to do this… No, I want to hear the answer first. Are you committed to not making rumors? Because you're scaring my VA employees about this and you scare my veterans.”
“I'll do that… The Lede was that there was a Doge guy there,” replied Kime. “I have problems analyzing my own, and that's fine.”
Kime further allegedly said that VA was not hired Doge Liaison, but that one employee of Elon Musk's agency happened to have worked for VA. In response, Collins was the “most transparent VA secretary” and promised to help reporters who write the truth.
“As I'm watching this, Patricia, I want you to know something,” Collins said. Looking at this headline, I want to work with you a lot as we move forward. You'll spend a lot of time together. But I'm going to scare reporters and scare employees and veterans. And that's what this is doing. Let's do that right. I am the most transparent VA secretary we still have. I'm in the video, I'm doing an interview, I'll do everything I can to push back everything I'm hearing. So we got a team to help you, but I also need your commitment to help me. ”
Kime compared exposed information about VA and Doge employees who access the Treasury's delicate payment system used to make US government payments and hold Social Security numbers for almost every American. Elon Musk, a senior White House adviser who oversees Doge, said Monday that the government has made great strides in identifying and eliminating wasteful and fraudulent federal spending.
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