Politics

Louisville VA Regional Director Blasts Pete Hegseth During Town Hall, Says He’d Be A Bad Pick For VA Secretary

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Jonah Bennett Contributor
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The Louisville Department of Veterans (VA) regional director slammed Army veteran Pete Hegseth — who is running to head up the VA — saying Hegseth wants to “dismantle” the VA, at an event last Thursday.

Hegseth is currently one of the top two picks for secretary of the VA in the Trump administration, but is known for challenging and confronting the VA in his former role as head of Concerned Veterans for America (CVA). It is Hegseth’s previous advocacy efforts which may be inspiring the heavy criticism from director David J. Davis, including his badmouthing of Hegseth during Thursday’s all-employee meeting.

Davis opened the meeting by telling the entire Louisville VA regional office in Kentucky that he hopes Hegseth does not get tapped for the position, according to three sources, including whistleblower Army Sgt. Maj. Patricia Davidson (Ret.) Davidson is a GS-12 VA employee.

“He announced the folks in the running for secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs and then afterwards, he made mention a little bit about each one of them, and what he said about Pete is that Pete previously headed up the Concerned Veterans organization and said to all the employees that Pete had previously wanted to dismantle the VA and now he is wanting to be the secretary,” Davidson told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “He said aloud to all of the employees that he hoped he does not become the next secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

Two other VA sources corroborated the event to TheDCNF, but asked repeatedly that they be kept anonymous, as they are utterly terrified of retaliation.

Davidson, on the other hand, decided not to passively listen to Davis and challenged him directly.

“I raised my hand, took the microphone and told him that he is not allowed to politic during public office and here he is telling the entire directorate how he feels about a potential secretary,” Davidson told TheDCNF.

Davis then took back the microphone and backpedaled on his statement, saying, “Well, what I meant was that any secretary is going to have difficulties in their transition,” according to Davidson.

The town hall then concluded, but this was the second month in a row Davis engaged in political speech, says Davidson. For example, the day after the presidential election, in which Trump won an astounding electoral victory, Davis reportedly said that it was a “sad day for the VA.”

Although the VA did confirm that Davis held a monthly town hall last Thursday, Eric Hazard, public affairs officer at the Louisville regional office, denied that Davis spoke negatively about any of the candidates brought up during the meeting.

“[Davis] noted in his opening comments that we can expect changes in the coming months as a new Secretary is named, and that he knows all of our employees will make needed adjustments to provide the best possible service to Veterans and their families,” Hazard told TheDCNF. “The Director stated that we have been successful in the past, based upon our ability to adjust to change in a positive manner. He did mention some of the potential nominees from news reports.  He did not endorse or speak negatively about any of the individuals named.  Regardless of whomever is appointed Secretary of the VA, our mission and dedication remains the same, and that is to serve Veterans.”

This isn’t the first time the VA has spoken out about CVA.

In an interview at The Newseum in August, 2015, VA Secretary Robert McDonald stated that CVA was an overtly political organization and wanted to privatize the VA.

“First of all, you have to understand the political nature of the Concerned Veterans for America,” McDonald said. “I’ve met with [CVA Chief Executive Officer] Peter Hegseth many times. I know the people that back him politically, who fund his organization. We are not in favor of privatizing the VA.”

But CVA has never proposed to privatize the VA, even though the claim has been picked up and repeated by Democratic legislators like Sen. Jon Tester and Rep. Mark Takano.

A fact check piece published by The Washington Post last Wednesday determined that “CVA has not proposed a wholesale transfer of VA’s services over to the private sector.” More explicitly, the piece stated that Tester and Takano have come up with their own understanding of “privatization” that is “quite misleading and twists the CVA’s proposal to meet their politically charged definition.”

CVA confirmed the same to TheDCNF.

“Misleading claims that my organization wants to privatize or abolish the VA have been disproven time and time again, but defenders of the VA status quo aren’t letting facts get in the way of their stories,” Dan Caldwell, vice president for policy at Concerned Veterans for America, told TheDCNF. “Concerned Veterans for America advocates to empower veterans with decisions over where and when to see a doctor. The very concept of veterans health care choice is threatening to unions and bureaucrats who would rather cling to power than do what’s right for our nation’s heroes.”

Given the extent of VA reforms proposed by CVA, however, Caldwell added that it’s “not surprising that many of these same people would start attacking Pete Hegseth, who has been a longtime advocate of these choice-based reforms.”

In response to the apparent political outburst of Davis, Davidson filed a report with the Office of Special Counsel’s Hatch Act division. The Hatch Act is legislation designed to prohibit federal employees from engaging in partisan political activities.

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