US President Barack Obama confirmed the resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki late Friday morning which was also the same day the president announced the exit of White House press secretary Jay Carney.

Shinseki’s resignation from the scandal-hit Veterans Affairs had all the markings of firing in the Oval Office.

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Meanwhile, Obama said that the commitment of then secretary Shinseki to the country’s veterans is beyond question. The president also added that Shinseki’s service to the United States has been exemplary. Furthermore, Obama added that he is grateful for the services rendered by Shinseki as well as many veterans nationwide.

The US President described Shinseki as a very good man. He also remembered the general to have been a wounded Vietnam veteran. Obama said that Shinseki willfully resigned from his post as he has become a distraction to organizing out the waiting list issue that has confronted the Veterans Affairs and the White House in the past weeks.

Obama reiterated that the decision to step down from office was Shinseki’s judgement. The president said that the VA secretary could no longer carry out the next steps to reform the agency without being a distraction himself. Furthermore, the president affirmed Shinseki’s judgment after assessing it himself.

However, it was quite ironic that few hours earlier the announced resignation, Shinseki spoke during a gathering of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans in Washington. He sounded very prepared to fix the status of the agency after it has breached integrity.

On the other hand, Obama also said on Friday that he has taken in a report affirming the abuses in the medical system to have spread widely. Obama reiterated that misconducts would not go unpunished and that even senior staff at the agency were being fired. He also said that bonuses were also being cancelled.

Talking about Shinseki, Obama said that the general might have felt great disappointment after finding it difficult to identify the problem and immediately find ways to fix it.

TagsEric Shinseki, Barack Obama, Jay Carney, Veterans Affairs