The former veterans affairs secretary David Shulkin has disputed the White House’s characterisation of his departure earlier this week, stating firmly he was fired and did not resign.
Shulkin appeared on both CNN and NBC on Sunday, after White House officials told Politico on Saturday he had resigned his position.
The distinction between the two versions of events could have serious ramifications for the already embattled department, a vast agency with close to a $200bn budget. Trump is seeking to bypass Shulkin’s deputy and appoint defense department official Robert Wilkie to lead the VA while his personal physician, Dr Ronny Jackson, goes through the confirmation process.
If Shulkin was fired, as the president himself has implied on Twitter, Trump may not be legally entitled to make such an appointment due to vague language in federal legislation governing temporary positions in government agencies.
“I came to fight for our veterans and I had no intention of giving up,” Shulkin said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “There would be no reason for me to resign. I made a commitment, I took an oath, and I was here to fight for our veterans.”
He told CNN’s State of the Union, flatly: “I did not resign.”
Trump has nominated Jackson, a rear admiral in the US navy, to take the VA job on a permanent basis. The doctor has no experience managing a major government department and is likely to face a rocky confirmation process in the Senate.
The Vermont independent Bernie Sanders told CNN on Sunday he would “do everything I can as a member of the veterans committee not to approve any nominee who is not going to strengthen the VA”.
Shulkin, an experienced healthcare manager who served as a VA undersecretary, declined to endorse Jackson. His departure came after a travel expenses scandal involving his wife.
On Sunday he told CNN “everything I did was done properly” and said a member of staff “made problems in paperwork”.
Shulkin said the “subversive techniques” of certain political appointees in his former department were behind his fall, as he resisted calls to privatise more healthcare services administered by the agency.
Privatisation of VA services is a policy backed by conservative groups and donors including the billionaire Koch brothers. Shulkin wrote an op-ed for the New York Times this week in which he opposed privatisation.
“I do think the way that the political appointees have behaved and the ways that they’ve tried to undermine our progress has made it a difficult environment,” he told CNN on Sunday.
“What I care about is making sure this veterans administration is making life better for veterans and it’s been a tough environment to do that recently.”
