Video: Blumenthal on Trump-Musk Attacks: Veterans Know Better

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) spoke on the Senate Floor to condemn ongoing efforts by President Trump and Elon Musk to decimate the Department of Veterans Affairs and the life-saving care, benefits and services our nation’s veterans have earned and deserve.

Blumenthal said on the Senate Floor, “We’re here to sound the alarm and reverse this…ongoing destructive cruelty and incompetence. I would like to think that it is maligned neglect, not purposeful malevolence – but one way or the other, the impact of Elon Musk and Donald Trump and, yes, Secretary Doug Collins, has been monumentally destructive.”

“Instead of coming before Congress, under oath, hosting a regular press conference, like his predecessor, or attending a town hall [open] to the public, Secretary Collins hides behind social media and deceitful assurances to veterans. He attacks the media, veterans’ leaders, Members of Congress. What he owes is the facts and action to correct the mistakes that are being made in real time.”

“Veterans know better.”

“They know that the Biden Administration was delivering more benefits and more health care to more veterans than ever before as a result of the PACT Act. They know that the care they receive at their local VA hospital or clinic is among the best in the country. They know they can rely on it.”

“And they know that this Administration is systematically betraying them with policies that put their interests last, not first; with the goal of saving money, not saving them. They know that that money is designed to finance tax cuts, not for them but for the billionaires and millionaires that populate and drive this Administration.”

Blumenthal also discussed the amendment he plans to offer later today to the Republican Budget Resolution ensuring the Veterans Health Administration is adequately staffed and funded.

“I’ll be offering an amendment to the Budget Resolution later today that will seek to safeguard veterans’ access to care by ensuring that the Veterans’ Health Administration is adequately staffed and funded. We owe our veterans no less,” Blumenthal said.

“A lot more, but no less than making sure we provide the resources and the staff to assure they continue to have gold standard care in the hospitals they visit, in the clinics that they populate, in the claims that they make under the PACT Act. All have been bipartisan in the past. I urge my colleagues on the Republican side to join me in this effort.”

Video of Blumenthal’s remarks is available here.

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