The sorry state of the Department of Veterans Affairs under former President Barack Obama was but one of many of the messes that President Donald Trump vowed to address when he first ran for office.
A U.S. Marine Corps veteran running for Congress praised President Trump for taking action to repair the VA, which he said was “the worst it had ever been” under Obama’s administration.
Tyler Kistner, Marine veteran turned congressional candidate, is running in Minnesota to unseat incumbent Rep. Angie Craig (D) in the state’s 2nd Congressional District, which lies just to the south of the twin cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul. It is considered a “battleground” district that could go either way.
Obama vs. Trump
In an appearance on Fox Business’ “Varney & Co.” with host David Asman on Friday, Kistner was asked to weigh in on the big news of the day — a hit piece published by the left-leaning The Atlantic that, citing only anonymous sources, smeared President Trump as having allegedly made several derogatory comments about U.S. military members who were killed in combat.
Kistner, who had served in the U.S. Special Forces as a Marine Raider, said, “As a veteran and a member who can speak confidently on this, I served under two administrations, both the Obama and Trump administrations.”
“I can tell you with experience that President Trump is the one who helped increase the funding for the military, helped give us the capabilities to stand up to China and Russia and the like, to make sure we have a strong national security,” he continued. “And he also helped increase Veterans Affairs, to make sure that we’re taking care of our veterans after they serve.
“And under the Obama administration, we weren’t getting that,” Kistner said. “Our budget was cut, we had limited resources to effectively carry out our job, and Veterans Affairs was the worst it had ever been.”
“So, no, I stand with our president and everything he’s continuing to do for our military, day in and day out,” he added.
Kistner compares the strong support the Trump admin has given to our military in contrast with Obama. Under Trump: more funding, more capabilities to deal w China & Russia, & fixing the VA to help vets.
Obama: cut military funding, limited resources, VA was total disaster. pic.twitter.com/k2orfaFdAz
— Tyler Kistner for Congress (@KistnerCongress) September 4, 2020
Driving a wedge between Trump and his supporters
The Atlantic’s attack on Trump, which was quickly joined by other mainstream media outlets also citing anonymous sources as “confirmation” of the initial allegations and seized upon by the president’s political foes, was clearly intended to drive a wedge between him and his supporters.
All it really did, though, was reinforce everybody’s already established notions about the man — those who hate him hated him more, and those who support him dismissed the anonymous claims as just more fake news.
Hopefully, the military community, whether active duty or veteran, will pause for a moment to compare what Obama did to the military with what Trump has done for the military, prior to rendering judgment based on media-driven smears.
The post VA was 'worst it had ever been' under Obama, says Marine veteran congressional candidate first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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