A group of local veterans was enraged by two empty picture frames hanging in the lobby of the Palm Beach, Florida VA Hospital.
The veterans noticed that almost two months into President Trump’s administration, the VA Hospital had failed to hang the requisite pictures of the Commander-in-Chief and VA Secretary so they contacted their congressman.
“Two blank holes, it’s been 60 something days now,” said Veteran John Rourke. “The veterans administration has been asked about it a few times, the local VA hospital has and they haven’t had any real reason other than they didn’t have the picture, which is readily available.”
Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) who is a veteran and represents the 18th district which includes northern Palm Beach responded to the veteran’s request by bringing in photos of President Donald Trump and VA Secretary David Shulkin and hanging them in the empty frames.
Shortly after the congressman left, VA officials had the photos removed.
A VA spokeswoman said that the congressman’s actions were “inappropriate” and the cell phone video was not legally obtained. Additionally, the spokeswoman said the portraits have been removed because they have not been authenticated. According to the spokeswoman portraits on display at the VA need to come from the central office.
CDN has reached out to the Government Printing Office, Government Services Administration and Office of Veterans Affairs for comment and this story will be updated if a response is received.
Editor’s Note: 3-16-17: The Department of Veterans Affairs has ordered all VA facilities to display portraits of President Trump and Secretary Shulkin – Full Story HERE
I started going to the VA hospital at Lyons N.J. in 2002 and Bill Clinton’s Pic was always on the wall I just thought they named the building after him so I never gave it any thought but as soon as Obama was president down came Clinton and up went Obama. I told my Doctor that If Obama ‘s Picture didn’t come down I was going to write my congressman about it, so just like in Fl. there are 2 blank holes No picture of Trump. What I would like to know is there something we can do to fix this. Bill
No Trump photo’s at VA clinic in Stockbridge Ga.either, WHY?
All VA images like this must be printed by GPO. Once GPO prints, it sends the approved copies to each facility for posting. GPO still hasn’t sent the prints, thus no facility has them. Individual facilities are not allowed to pull images off the internet and print themselves.
My question to the Government Printing Office is this! 60 days has passed since inauguration how long does it take to print the President, Vice President and VA Secretary’s photos be printed? It’s not as if they’re hiding in Kathmandu! It’s obvious we had Barack’s holdovers at GPO trying to hold on in case Barack comes back!
I have reached out to the GPO for comment and am anxiously awaiting their response.
It’s outrageous and perhaps those VA hospital administrators and board members need to be replaced
Would love to see POTUS show up with two ‘authorized’ photos!
As a retired US Navy veteran with more than 24 year’s active duty service, I can publicly attest to the fact that he VA system has—historically—had more than its fair share of well-documented problems providing our veterans the level of quality medical service that our veterans have EARNED (and were PROMISED) while they were on active duty. The *ONLY* thing which has saved me (personally) is the fact I became eligible for MEDICARE COVERAGE…PRIOR TO…the start of many medical issues (requiring a number of surgeries and hospitalizations) which occurred a number of years AFTER I retired from active duty! I can only pray that our new President Trump will—FINALLY—follow through on his campaign PROMISE to “FIX” the VA system—or else do away with the VA System and PRIVATIZE it by allowing our veterans to use private medical facilities and doctors!
Although limited to a single anecdote, this is a prime example of why Vets need to be able to use their benefits in the civilian health care system.
I say the Congress persons from each state go hang the pic in each office. Then who ever takes them down or orders they be taken down be fired.
AMEN…..
RESPECT is no longer a word KNOWN or practiced in the USA. SAD>
President TRUMP and VP PENCE must have their pictures on the wall-immediately….
God help us: USA
My parents are retired veterans. My uncles were veterans from the Krean war and Iraq & Afgan. My grandfather was a vet of WWII. No way ANY of them would respect the joke of trump being president! Maybe RESPECT the veterans – the people who actually fought for the U.S. Instead of this racist, ignorant, bully, who differed being drafted how many times?