Twnty-two-year military veteran and talk show host Montel Williams escalated his crusade against the Veterans Administration on Monday, calling for many employees to be fired and declaring, “We need to shut this organization down.”
Williams appeared on Neil Cavuto’s Fox News program in the latest in a series of appearances since his fiery debut onto the VA scandal scene over two weeks ago. (RELATED: Furious Veteran Montel Williams UNLOADS On Obama Over VA Scandal)
Back then, Williams was upset with the president (not to mention The Daily Caller’s headline). But on Monday, he took specific aim at VA employees, many of whom he feels are deliberately ignoring important fixes that would get veterans the appointments and care that they need.
“Would you shut the VA down?” Cavuto asked.
“You know what I’d do? It’d make some people mad,” Williams replied. “A lot of people would lose their jobs in the next 60 days. Done.”
“If I took over the VA tomorrow, I would walk in — because I’ll tell you something,” he continued. “I know some of these people who have received e-mails in the last 20 days who won’t even pass them on to people ahead of them. And they’re hearing from good people around the country — admirals, generals — who are writing them, telling them what to do.”
“And they’re just sending back notices, ‘We’ll put that with the group of other recommendations,” he accused angrily. “Are you kidding me? You’re getting some of the best information from guys on the ground who served and you won’t even listen –”
“But is the VA too big, Montel?” Cavuto asked.
“It’s too big,” Williams agreed. “And we’ve created a structure where again, if you can’t fire somebody, you’ve got a problem. And we got a bigger problem when a group of people can vote themselves a bonus, just for keeping track of numbers that they lie about? We need to shut this organization down.”
Montel’s dissatisfaction with VA workers puts him squarely at odds with acting Secretary Sloan Gibson, who recently declared that the idea of firing VA employees over the scandal was “a bunch of crap.”