McConnell: Obama is always ‘last to know’

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said it’s “curious” that President Obama didn’t know about the growing scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

{mosads}“We need answers from the president and his administration. But the White House claims the president didn’t really even know about the latest scandal until hearing about it in the news,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday. “President Obama, the most powerful man in the free world, always seems to be the last to know about what’s going on in his own administration.”

Recent reports from a VA facility in Phoenix sparked Republicans to call for the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. At least 40 people died after allegedly being put on a secret waiting list in order to hide the long wait times for care.

President Obama addressed the public this week, promising he will hold people accountable, but Obama did not ask Shinseki to resign.

McConnell said Obama needed to show more leadership and get to the bottom of the issue, especially ahead of Memorial Day.

“If it really is true that he learns so much through the press — if he really knows that little about what’s going on in his own administration — then he needs to get re-engaged. Right now,” McConnell said. “This scandal appears to be a failure of a huge magnitude, and the people we represent are demanding he rise to the challenge.”