Acting head may lead VA
PRESIDENT TRUMP tapped Acting Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie on Friday to lead the embattled agency.
Trump, speaking at a White House summit on prison reform, appeared to surprise Wilkie with his impromptu announcement.
“I’ll be informing him in a little while, he doesn’t know this yet, but we’re going to be putting his name up for nomination to be secretary of the veterans administration,” Trump said.
Wilkie stood and shook Trump’s hand as the crowd gathered in the room cheered.
The President initially nominated White House physician Ronny Jackson to replace the ousted David Shulkin, but his contentious nomination fizzled out amid allegations of improper behavior during his time at the White House medical unit.
“I’m sorry that I ruined the surprise,” Trump said after naming Wilkie as his newest nominee.
The 55-year-old is a former Pentagon undersecretary for personnel and readiness.
He served both Robert Gates and Donald Rumsfeld as an assistant secretary of defense between 2005 an 2008, and served as special assistant to the President for national security affairs under Condoleezza Rice. ALBANY — Sidney Walton, a 99-year-old World War II veteran who’s on a mission to meet every governor in the nation before he turns 100, crossed Gov. Cuomo off his list Friday.
Walton, who grew up in New York City before joining the Army, toured the state Capitol and met with Cuomo for several minutes Friday afternoon. Cuomo became the fifth governor to shake hands with Walton since the veteran launched his tour in February.
“It’s a great honor,” Walton said as he sat in his wheelchair with Cuomo by his side.
Cuomo presented Walton with the Governor’s Medal for Public Service, noting that Walton was born in Manhattan, raised in Brooklyn and spent summers in the Catskills.
“Once a New Yorker, always a New Yorker,” Cuomo said to the veteran, who lives with his son Paul, 62, in San Diego.
Walton hopes his “No Regrets Tour” will raise awareness to the fact that World War II veterans are rapidly dying off. He wants to give as many people as possible the chance to meet him and talk with a survivor of the war.
“That was exceptional,” Paul Walton, who is traveling with his father, said of the meeting with Cuomo.
Paul Walton said they got the idea for the tour while celebrating his dad's 99th birthday in February. The tour's name is derived from the regret Sidney has always felt at not being able to meet a group of Civil War veterans who gathered for an event in Central Park when he was 21.