Shulkin Blames Ethics Woes On Campaign By Trump Appointees
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Nathan Guttman March 5, 2018
Veterans Affairs secretary David Shulkin is in hot water over a trip to Europe in which the government picked up the tab for his wife. The rather minor incident ballooned into a major affair after an internal VA report found that Shulkin’s advisers tried to doctor emails in order to hide information about the trip.
Now, according to Axios,Shlkin has find the cause for his troubles: It is the Trump appointees at the VA who are out to get him.
“The VA secretary has been telling anyone who will listen that Trump appointees in his agency are conspiring to undermine him,” Axios reported. Shulkin is now doing his own PR, after loosing trust in the department’s press team, and has said that he plans a purge, backed by the White House.
But senior White House officials were quoted saying that Shulkin’s future is anything but sure and that “a small, little, tiny breeze would push him over the edge.”
Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
