Morale in the VA was pretty bad over the way their bosses reacted to the death of VA nurse Alex Pretti. The response of Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins was singled out by employees.
According to what employees told The Prospect, Collins did not even bother to send out an email acknowledging the shock and horror of the more than 400,000 employees who serve under him. “There was nothing in my in-box about this on Monday morning,” one VA employee said. Collins’s only response to Pretti’s death was on social media, and it was, the employee said, not helpful.
All Collins said was: “We can confirm Alex Pretti was a nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. As President Trump has said, nobody wants to see chaos and death in American cities, and we send our condolences to the Pretti family. Such tragedies are unfortunately happening in Minnesota because of state and local officials’ refusal to cooperate with the federal government to enforce the law and deport dangerous illegal criminals.” (Can you tell he's a MAGAt?)
Sen. Elissa Slotkin went after Collins' scalp for exactly that kind of callous indifference, and it was gratifying to watch. "Was this man, in your estimation, a domestic terrorist, or an assassin?"
He denied making any personal characterization.
She asked Gregory Goins, the VA's COO, if he tried to stop the employee memorial in Pretti's honor. She said the nursing supervisors said "higher ups" told her they couldn't have a memorial. He denied it.
Slotkin said, "So we're to believe that this person just woke up and decided to say that someone else told her, the higher ups, told her not to have this memorial. She just made that up?"
You go, Senator Slotkin. Show them up as the heartless, political bastards they are.
